


Pokemon: rejuvenation

by Ibrex2000



Series: Pokemon rejuvenation [1]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, Betrayal, Dimension Travel, Fate & Destiny, Friendship, Harems, Multi, Pokemon, Post-Dark Side Of Dimensions, Romance, Time Travel, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:46:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 13
Words: 45,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24146854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ibrex2000/pseuds/Ibrex2000
Summary: Ray is a normal 17 year old boy from the Unova region, his guardian Nancy escorts him to the Aevium region in hopes of him finally taking on a Pokemon league, in Aevium Ray finds himself struck by Cupid's arrow as falls in love with Melia a sweet girl who is unfortunately targeted by an evil organization, how will Ray protect his first crush?
Relationships: Harem - Relationship
Series: Pokemon rejuvenation [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1742545
Kudos: 2





	1. Arc 1: shipwrecked. The Theolia family

Maria was being told a bed time story about a zorua and a pangoro this story talked about trust and friendship and it was inspiration to the 8 year old girl, this really reflected and her relationship with others, Anathea her mother was proud of her daughter and was hoping to see how she grows up.  
Anathea left Maria in her room to go prepare dinner. The room was large but what else can you expect from a mansion.

"So bored....." Maria said as she left her bed and ran out, she was a girl of action and loved to run about.  
Her mother was washing some yams as Maria approached her and hugged her legs  
"Oh my, Maria since your up could you go get your father" Anathea ordered  
"Ok mommy" Maria said and headed off.  
She went to her father Indriad's lab, it was a creepy place with dead Rattata's and zubats in cages, even though her father was a strange man she still loved him.  
"Daddy it's time for dinner!" Maria shouted  
"Ah geez! I'll be there in a minute, gotta finish this project" Indriad answered, he was tinkering with a pink box Maria had no idea of.  
Maria went ahead to report to her mother,  
"That's good dear now go up to your room and get ready for dinner" Anathea said.  
Maria humbly smiled and ran up to her room.

'Bang!' a loud noise came from the front door Maria ran down the stairs to check it out, however....  
A cloaked figure stood before her  
"Who are you?" Maria asked  
"It doesn't matter, you should go back upstairs" the figure replied in a husky voice.  
"But that noise" Maria insisted  
"Look here kid if your certain you want to continue this fine. Go down to your dad's lab, but don't ever forget what you'll see there...... never lose hope" the figure moved from Maria's way and Maria rushed off to her father's lab

Never lose hope.........

Maria passed by the front door, the door was knocked down with strange red liquid on the ground.  
She went into the lab and went downstairs, there she witnessed something strange  
Her father was wearing armor similar to that of a samurai's he was surrounded by strange maids she had never seen before.  
"Let us begin" Indriad said.  
Maria saw her mother on the Altar Indriad was standing on, there was red liquid in her mouth and her eyes were closed, a strange symbol from under her began to glow purple,  
{Ackuto phantos insidia!} Indriad spoke with a strange devilish tone in his Voice.  
Anathea's body lifted off the ground and into the air, then in a purple flash of light her body disappeared.  
Maria was speechless and scared at what had just happened.  
"There you are little missy, time to go" a maid grabbed Maria from behind and took her to Indriad.  
"Maria it will be okay" Indriad said to her  
"What did you do to mommy?!" Maria asked out of frustration and grief.  
"The same thing am about to do to you" Indriad said with a grin, Maria cried as she tried to break free from the maids but she couldn't, Indriad placed her on the Altar and as Anathea had disappeared in a purple flash Maria followed suit.

Maria opened her eyes to see herself in a castle.(what just happened) she thought to herself  
"Marinette your father requests your presence"  
Maria whole body shivered as the maid said that name in a grim tone.  
(What's going on?,where am I? My name's not Marianette!) All these thoughts flooded her mind.

Finally she met her father Indriad  
"Lord Vitus, Marinette has arrived" a maid said  
"Father what's going on with you?!" Maria shouted.  
"Oh Marianette, if only you knew" Indriad no....Vitus said with a grin tone...  
Maria's life was going to take a turn for the worse at this moment.

In the Unova region  
A dark skinned boy wearing a white long sleeved jacket a gray and pink under shirt and wore a black sweater as a scraf with black jeans carried a bag of luggage to a ship, this boy had a partly annoyed party excited face,  
He was annoyed by the fact he didn't know the region he was moving to, and excited because he would finally start his Pokemon journey there!  
"Ray come on board! the ship is leaving" a woman wearing a white gown said he had short pink hair and a tired expression on her face.  
"Coming Nancy! Hold your horses!" Ray exclaimed as he boarded the huge cruise liner.  
The destination was the estranged region of Aevium, Ray had no idea how this trip would change his life for better and for worse.


	2. Ray's strange Xen' counter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An introduction to our protagonist Ray and what happens to him in the Aevium region

S.s Oceana  
A week had passed since Ray left his old life in the Unova region behind him. He was a dark skinned 17 year old boy his hair color was dark blue with gray eyes that shined like steel, his clothes were mainly a gray long sleeve jacket and black jeans, he wore a white T-shirt inside of the gray jacket with a purple banner at the bottom, he also tied a black sweater on his neck like a scarf symbolising him as a 'Rich Kid'.  
He was currently on board the S,S Oceana a cruise ship. He was in the registration hall of the ship to get his information checked in for his trainer license. He turned on a PC and began the process.

"Welcome to the Aevium league!" A cheerful voice came from the PC, it was a young dark skinned woman with short black hair with red frosted tips, her face was pretty with a bright smile, she wore a black and white shirt that clung to her voluptuous body nicely, Ray couldn't help but look amazed at how beautiful she was.  
"My name's Amanda, am sort of a scout for the league, helping out newbie trainers such as yourself" Amanda said smiling.  
"It's kinda weird to be called a newbie at my age" Ray said with sweat dripping from you forehead.  
"The Aevium league ain't like any other league out there, it's got 18 gyms instead of 8 and it has an "Elite 8" instead of 4, you heard me right 8 hahaha so meta right? " Amanda added.  
"Elite 8?!" The hell sort of gauntlet match do they want people to take part of!!!" Ray panicked at the thought of fighting 8 people in a row.   
"Also this region is known for having different terrains that could aid or hinder your battling prowess so better keep that in mind" the scout said with a serious face.  
"This region might turn Into more of a chore than an adventure" Ray left a lazy comment.  
"well enough of that please insert your picture, gender and name into the PC" Amanda demanded  
Ray took a picture of himself smiling and inserted it into the pc slot, he then typed in male as his gender and wrote 'Ray' only as his name.  
"Alright then as soon as you arrive at Oceana pier go north and you'll find Gearan city, I'll be waiting for you at the city lab, see you soon" the image of Amanda then vanished from the screen.

Ray walked away from the PC and headed to the receptionist in the room.  
"Here you go, your very own trainer card, it isn't verified yet you'll have to do that when we dock at the pier" the receptionist told him  
"Thanks" the dark skinned boy said nonchalantly and walked away.  
He looked at his trainer card and smiled, (this time for sure, I'll make a name for myself, get all the girls and make a ton of friends!) He said to himself.  
He left the room and shouted "Am going to be a champion! And then a master!" He lifted his fist into the air,  
"The journey of Ray starts....." He was caught off by a mysterious woman pulling his cheek.  
"Ouch ouch ouch! Nancy that hurts!" Ray cried out with tears in his eyes.  
"I've told you a hundred times don't yell in public, at least you're done with the registration finally" the woman known as Nancy said. She had bright pink hair and a white coat, her pink eye had bags under them and her face gave the impression of a hard worker (which she was, she's a rich lady).  
"I know it's hard leaving the region you were born in but, it's for the best" Nancy said softly as she put a hand on Ray's shoulder.  
(Pfft, hard my ass, Unova sucked, the league was so uncoordinated, the other kids in the school always left me behind because I didn't fit into any category jock, normie or nerd, and most Pokemon in that region looked horrible) in his mind Ray really hated Unova and was ready to start over again in Aevium.  
"Anyway, you should go talk to the captain, he's an old friend of mine, he's bound to have a lot of knowledge about Aevium" Nancy suggested.  
"Alright, I got it" Ray reluctantly agreed and left. He climbed up the stairs of the ship, thinking about his relationship with Nancy, by the age of 15 he came to the conclusion Nancy wasn't his mother, their differences were too many for them to be related, so he stopped calling her mom and started referring to her as just Nancy, he respected her as his guardian but as a mother he couldn't.

As Ray walked up the stairs, Nancy walked down stairs and entered a one of the rooms.  
The room occupied 2 beings, one was a Pokemon with a humanoid shape(Gothitelle), it looked like a girl trying out goth style clothing, it was dark purple and pink in colour with bows everywhere, it had a sadistic smile on it's face.  
The other was a girl with black hair about Ray's age, she wore a white blouse and a black skirt with suspenders,her dark purple stockings made her legs look more attractive, she had 2 purple flower accessories on the left and right side of her head.  
"I take it everything is going well" the girl spoke to Nancy.  
"Well Ray's fine but I can't shake the feeling something big is about to happen" Nancy spoke up.  
"I could care less about your faux feeling, if anything is to happen am sure you can handle, if not I'll terminate you on the spot" the girl said with a grim tone.  
"I understand Crescent, I'll follow the mission, keep Ray save and raise him peacefully in Aevium" Nancy said as she bowed.  
"Indeed, I just want Ray to smile, his happiness is the most important thing right now" Cresent the mysterious girl said with a malicious smile.

Ray continued to make his way to the captain's quarters until he got distracted by a pleasant sound.  
He turned around and saw a beautiful woman playing piano with a round pink Pokemon on top of it dancing about.  
"Wow that sounds amazing!" Ray said out loud.  
"Well thank you for the compliment" the woman smiled.  
She had dark green hair, fair skin and green eyes. Her dress was a long green ball gown.  
She continued to play the piano and Ray listened on. He was fond of music and wasn't bad at playing the poke flute.  
"So what's your name, fellow music lover, mine's Louis but my friends just call me piano lady" Louis (piano lady) said.  
"The name's Ray nice to meet you, so you must love your job to get a nickname like that" Ray laughed a bit.  
"Indeed it's my passion, when you find something or someone you love so much you take the risk to keep it/them no matter what" Louis said proudly.  
These words stuck with Ray tightly, something he loves huh, he just wanted to be a trainer because everyone was doing that, but something he loves intensely was nowhere to be found, maybe he would find that in Aevium.  
"Well it was nice talking to you piano lady, I see you later" he waved at her as he walked away.  
"We'll see at the banquet, I'll do a special song just for you" she said smiling, she was quite friendly, Ray thought, if he could make friends like this in Aevium, he'd be happy.

Ray opened a door on the top floor. And old man wearing a blue coat simmering with medals looked straight at him, he had blond hair and blue eyes, his strain face made him look intimidating.  
"You must be Ray, Nancy told me you'd be coming, am Captain Augustas Briney, here have a seat we have much to talk about" captain Augustas offered Ray.  
The conversion went on for an hour, Ray had no problem listening to a hot woman but listening to an old man was pushing his limits.

After the conversation, Ray and the captain attended the banquet.  
The hall was full to the brim with passengers all sitting on silver chairs with pink tables all coated with golden table cloths, Ray sat next to Nancy, he turned around to see an attractive girl with a Gothitelle(a famous unova Pokemon), he smiled at the girl but she ignored him.  
The piano lady began to play the famous song 'I want to be the very best' on her piano.  
Captain Augustas stepped forward to address the passengers.  
"It's been just a week at sea,but it seems like we've become like family, cheers to our final dinner before we depart!" Augustas shouted and the audience cheered.... however.

At that very moment the hall doors were kicked down.  
"Yo people! This vessel's under Xen rule, we've placed bombs all over, failure to comply will lead to consequences" a woman wearing black said as she walked into hall.  
Naturally everyone panicked screaming and running about.  
"Quiet! We're looking for a someone here so stop messing around!" Another mysterious person shouted.  
Nancy quickly grabbed Ray and tossed him towards the mysterious woman with a Gothitelle "Cresent!" She shouted.  
"Got it!" The woman clicked her finger and her Gothitelle stared at Ray.  
"Wait.." Ray said before he vanished from sight.  
"Goddamn it!" The Intruders shouted as one pushed a bottom on a remote.

Ray opens his eyes to see a his been placed in a darkened captain's quarters.(did I just get teleported) he wondered.  
He stepped out of the room to see the piano lady packing her things near her piano, the ship was a wreck, broken floor boards and stuff.  
"Louis what's going on?" Ray spoke up.  
"Ray! There you are, after you vanished those goons blew up the ship" Louis said sadly.  
"Damnit, when everyone was happy, why did shit like this have to happen" Ray said angered.  
'Creckkk' from the broken floor boards numerous red tentacles spouted, they had big white eyes on them watching Ray and the piano lady.  
"The hell?" Ray said puzzled.  
"I don't know what these are but their just watching us for now, you should go look for other survivors, I'll be fine" Louis said reassuring Ray.  
Ray nodded and went downstairs.

Ray saw a man blocking the entrance to the cargo hold and ignored him, he then went South and saw Augustas with a group of people.  
"Captain!" The boy called out.  
"Ray thank goodness you're safe, Nancy's run off somewhere and numerous people are missing..... I can't believe team Xen would attack my vessel" Augustas said.  
"Team Xen?" Ray asked  
"Yes that's right similar to the team plasma in Unova, team Xen are the evil team of Aevium, they seemed harmless at first but now their showing their true colors" Augustas explained.  
A man standing near the doors of the entrance called everyone attention   
"I see something!"  
The man walked towards the flooded floor to see a shadow in the water.  
Tentacles then sprouted and ensnared the man.  
"Run!!" He shouted.  
As he was pulled down under strange being colored red,blue and black came from the water, each having four long tentacles.  
"Ray go to the cargo hold, am sure Nancy is there run!" Augustas said shoving Ray aside as he went to face the beings.  
Ray hated his powerlessness, but had no choice but to go.  
Ray raced to the cargo hold.  
He faced the man guarding "let me through!" He shouted.  
"No way going down there is suicide!" The man replied.  
Almost instantly he was grabbed by tentacles and flown away "ahhhhhhhhhh!" Were his last words. Ray seeing this opportunity ran into the cargo hold.

Cargo hold  
Ray ran into the broken door in the cargo hold. He saw his guardian Nancy fighting off the creatures while also trying to stop the flooding with her trusted Pokemon Sylveon.  
"Nancy!!!!" Ray cried out.  
"Ray your alright! Thank goodness!" Nancy smiled.  
"Listen Ray we have to....." Nancy was about to say something until.  
A mysterious light appeared in front of them. The purple light formed the letter N and a woman appeared from it.  
She was dressed in a black and red suit. Her purple hair swaying to the right side, she had shades on for some reason and her grin widened.  
"Found you" she said playfully  
"You won't touch him!" Nancy said as she moved in front of Ray.  
"Oh dear, am not talking about the boy. Am talking about you Nancy, team Xen has made it so that your capture will finally bring us out of the shadows and into the limelight! This is the start of our conquest!" The woman shouted smiling.  
Nancy returned Sylveon to her ball and grabbed Ray.  
"Ray listen to me. take all my Pokemon and get to safety, one knows surf so am sure....." Nancy said before she was interrupted again.  
"No way Nancy! Am tired of running! We'll fight them together!" Ray said tired of running away.  
"Oh Ray..." Nancy gave a small smile.  
The woman tired of seeing this farce ordered more beings to apprehend Ray and Nancy, the 3 strange creatures separated the 2 from each other.  
"No!" Nancy protested as the creatures closed in on Ray.  
'baaaaaam!!!' a huge object fell from the ceiling crushing the creatures.  
"Huh?" Ray said as he realized the object was actually a piano (Louis)

Upstairs Louis had saved Ray's life.  
"You better appreciate me kid. huff, huff. It's not easy pushing a piano you know!" She said pouting.  
(I don't know if this changes anything but it's better than nothing, don't waste this chance) she thought.  
4 of the creatures then grabbed her from every direction. (Cause it looks like my time is up).

Ray seeing no way to get to Nancy shouted.  
"Goddamn it, Nancy you better survive this! I'll come back and save you! Count on it!" Ray shouted as he jumped into the water.  
Nancy smiled as she faced the purple woman. 'Tsk' the woman hissed.

Ray managed to swim all the was to the dock of the shop however, as he was running he bumped into a scary looking man, he was dark skinned with gray hair his red eye was complimented by a tattoo on the left side of his face, he wore a dark blue coat that reached his knees.  
He looked at Ray with pity and Ray looked at him with rage.  
"That look in your eyes pisses me off" the man said.  
"Well your face makes me sick as well!" Ray countered.  
"Don't let him escape, he's the kind of person who becomes a nuisance if left alone" the purple haired woman came from below with an army of tentacles.  
(This is bad) Ray thought to himself.  
A truly hopeless situation, no Pokemon, no power, yet he couldn't give up.  
"Listen up you Xen creeps, am going to become the strongest trainer you've ever seen! I'll kick all your asses! This is the start of my legacy! Ray's legacy!" Ray cried out as he charged the man with his hand balled into a fist.  
The man readied his pokeball and the woman sent some tentacles to attack Ray.  
"Flammmmmmmmmmme!" A screech cried out from the sky.  
A shadow raced towards the ship and picked Ray up.  
The Xen members were dumfounded.  
(Damnit this is a problem) the woman thought to herself.

Oceana pier  
Ray's eyes opened up to see a giant red bird on top of him warming up his soaked body.  
"Thanks" he said softly, he was on a pier with numerous ships docked there.  
A yacht passed by and into a nearby shed. A woman came out of the shed with a worried expression on her face.  
She had tanned skin and red hair, red eyes as sharp as flames, he also wore a red dress with white flames designed on it.  
She pulled Ray away from the bird and stood him up.  
"Are you hurt? I sent Talonflame ahead of me to rescue anyone on the ship he could find" the woman explained.  
"Did you find anyone else?!" Ray shouted as he clung to her.  
"Sadly no, but I doubt team Xen killed them, their probably going to hold them somewhere" the woman said  
"Then there's no time to waste, got to get stronger" he said as he gathered strength into his legs.  
"Do you have a place to stay?" She asked.  
"Not really but am supposed to head to Gearan city, then I'll become a trainer and defeat team Xen" Ray said with a determined look on his face.  
The woman was impressed by his resolve.  
"May I ask your name boy?" She asked  
"It's Ray and am going to become the champion of this region!" He said making a fist at her.  
"Fascinating, my name's Tesla, am a firm believer in fate, and am sure your presence here today is a sign of something yet to come. Till we meet again. Tesla said as she rode her Talonflame and flew up into the sky.

Ray looked on as she disappeared from sight a tear fell from his face but he quickly wiped it off. No need for tears, Nancy and the others were safe, what he needed on his mind now was positivity. And with that he walked north towards Gearan city.

That's it for the beginning. Next chapter the story unfolds for our hero Ray!. Till next time.


	3. Love at first fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray enters east Gearan city and meets Melia and the others

Oceana pier  
Crossing the pier, passing by grazing Fletchling(bird Pokemon), and a guy shouting something about a trip to Hoenn, Ray stumbles upon a sight that awakens some repressed memories, kids in school uniforms.

(Flashback 2 years ago)  
Unova region  
Castelia city  
Castelia middle School  
Castelia city is one of the biggest cities in Unova, therefore it's school was high maintenance, the kids we're all rich snubs, Ray was also rich but that did nothing for him personality wise, the kids in school were by the book, all liking the same thing, same music, same movies, same games etc, however the dark skinned boy enjoyed some weird stuff, like combining different snacks together, reading manga, shouting Pokemon moves aloud and posing strangely, to top it all off, he was honest to a fault so he didn't hide his true nature from the others

During an assembly after saying their school anthem, all the students put their right hand to their chest, however Ray cover the left side of his face with it and made a menacing face, the others looked at him confused as heck.

In the Cafeteria, Ray had a sandwich with peanut butter in it, yet he added soy sauce on top of it.

"Dude are you sure that's a good idea?" A boy passing by said.

"Yep, the spicy taste of the sauce, the sweetness of the bread and the peanut butter come together perfectly!" Ray said as he took a bite making the others feel disgusted.

In class some students were talking about their favorite artists,actors and trainers

"Did you hear DJ Leo's new song ‘dig it out alola’? A girl with green hair said as she sat on her desk.

"Yah I did it's awesome, I think it's going to be in the new movie ‘Kalos 7’ with the famous actress Diantha, she's so hot!" A boy with an Afro said while smiling.

"Lance the dragon master is going to be in it too right? Hey Ray are you excited for the movie?" Another girl with pink hair tied into a ponytail asked.

"Not really... The manga is better, there the protagonist is a guy with a magikarp that faces evil, while in the movie it's a girl with a shaymin....." Ray blabbed out until he saw his classmates had ignored his rant and continued their discussion without him, making him feel even more left out.

These events were just a small portion of what he experienced in school, becoming an outcast for having his own special individuality and not following the norms, one of the main reasons his not fond of his home region Unova.

Present  
"Hey kid, kid! You okay?" A man with a gray shirt said to Ray who was spaced out.

"Oh yah am fine..." Ray said calmly.

"You look gloomy, Gearan just up ahead" the man informed him.

Ray thanked the man and headed for the south gate of Gearan.

Gearan south gate  
Ray entered the gates to find a receptionist calling him she had brown hair and wore a white dress, her name was Mable and she collected his trainer card since he didn't have any more passports.  
Mable then got up from her desk and moved to another receptionist wearing the same dress, with Ray behind her.

"Hey Sable, I need you to verify this trainer's card, if not you what will happen to him" Mable said with a Stern face.

"Hai hai got it!" Sable said as put the card into a computer and pulled it out again.

Mable collected the card and handed it back to Ray.

"Congratulations Ray, your a verified trainer of Aevium now! Good luck"

"Thank you, now on to Gearan labs!" Ray shouted as he pointed to the sky, with sweat dripping from Mable.

East Gearan city  
Ray awed at the amazing city he found himself in, a mixture a huge story buildings and normal bungalow all together in harmony, a line of purified water ran through a glass floor on the road all around the city, the weirdest part is that this was just the East part of Gearan west Gearan was even bigger but was blocked off for some reason.

Gearan laboratory  
After admiring the city Ray decided to head to the laboratory, it was a huge blue building with 2 water tanks on top of the building.  
Inside was even bigger having 2 parlours, 1 with books everywhere like a small library and the other having a flat screen television with people watching in it.

Ray entered the tv room to hear from the newscaster Volta(a girl with blonde hair) speaking about the missing S.S Oceana, which made him sad again.  
He then spoke to a girl with long braided pigtails.

"Hey have you heard of the Garufa tribe, it's said that they used Pokemon as sacrifices to gain mysterious powers, that's so cruel" the pigtails girl said.

"Garufa tribe? Hmmm strange" Ray said, the word sounded familiar but he couldn't tell from where.

After that he met a girl wearing a black,red and white uniform, she had long red and black tied by a red baseball cap, her eyes were really sharp looking like they could see through stone.

"You really kept me waiting didn't you! It's me Amanda the scout for the Aevium league! Now that that's settled let's go get you a starter!" Amanda said cheerfully.

"Yay...." Ray said, he would have been happier but something about Amanda ticked him off.

As the two walked north of the laboratory into the waiting room next to the professor's room, a man with silver hair ran towards them.

"Amanda where have you been? it's been a week since you went to grand dream city! And left me with all the paperwork okay!" The man shouted at Amanda

"Come on bro, you know you're better at the paper work aspect of running the league while am the hands on director look I've got a a new trainer to evaluate" Amanda said pointing at Ray looking absent minded as usual.

"Oh you're the new trainer, my name's Jan, I manage the Pokemon league with my lazy sister right here" Jan said laughing to the dismay of Amanda.

"Nice to meet you, am Ray and am going to be the champion!" The dark skinned boy said while pointing to the ceiling again.

"Yah they all say that..., Give me a minute with my sister then you can continue" Jan said as he pulled Amanda to the sidelines while Ray looked around.

Ray saw a particular scene of a girl with green hair sleeping, she had a cut frilly lime dress on, along with her looks she was a 10/10 in his book, the next moment a strange man with wild purple hair and a lab coat enters the waiting room, wakes her up and the two leave, Ray wonders if he'll see that girl again.

"Okay let's go get your starter!" Amanda says as she walks away from Jan and into the professor's office.

Ray follows suit until the door opens again and his hit by something soft in the chest, Ray opens his eyes to see a girl on the floor.

She's blonde with chin length hair, a white sweater and black bike shorts, she's holding something like a briefcase in her left hand.

"Am so sorry are you okay?" Ray gives her a hand.

She takes his hand and Ray Sees her face, at that moment as he looked into her big dark gray eyes his heart skips a beat, her cheeks seemed full of life as if pinching them would give you Joy, her lips were plump and Rosey, Ray lifted her up without blinking still admiring her face.

"Thank you, am in a hurry so bye!" The girl quickly ran to the exit of the lab.

"Wait...(I didn't even get her name)" Ray sighed at his failure to get her name.

Professor Jenner's main office  
Ray enters to see a blonde man in a lab coat talking to a woman with red hair on a flat screen.

"Make sure she's ready for pickup" the woman said in an obnoxious voice.

The man closes the channel and addressed Ray and Amanda.

"Oh you guys are early! Am professor Jenner" the man identified himself.

"We're actually late but whatever, this is Ray, he'll be getting his starter Pokemon" Amanda said.

"Oh alright, go help him pick one, after that I want to see him privately" Jenner asked

"Oh I guess that's fine" Ray said confused.

Starter habitats  
Ray walked into an enclosure with 21 Pokemon, 3 habitats were there, a rocky terrain for the fire types, a forest terrain for the grass types and finally a murky terrain for the water types.

"Look Ray we've got all starters from 7 different regions, ain't that cool" Amanda said full of pride.

"It's cool but it makes choosing even harder!" Ray shouted as he was pissed off.

Ray didn't know what type to get, all he knew was he wasn't going to pick any starter from Unova, he looked at the rocky terrain but didn't see a fire type to his liking.  
He moved to the forest terrain and grass types all looked lazy to him.  
Finally the murky terrain, a turtle like Pokemon caught his eyes as it was showing great defense by blocking attacks from a blue otter Pokemon.

"Alright I'll take the turt.." before he could finish his sentence his face was hit with a soft ball, it was pulling his cheeks making him uncomfortable.

"Get off me!!" He tried to pull the ball off his face.

"Huh you want that Piplup? It's the only starter Pokemon that hasn't been replaced since the lab was established"

"Piplup?" Ray pulled the Pokemon off and saw it was a tiny blue penguin, it's expression was that of a warrior.

"More like it chose me, why hasn't anyone else picked it?" Ray asked.

"It's troublesome, doesn't obey it's trainers, and it's not a physical attacker yet it only likes using physical moves" Amanda explained.

"What a handful, if I pick you, we'll have to work on that okay?" Ray asked the Piplup.

Strangely the penguin acted docile and happy as it nodded it's head Amanda gave Ray Piplup's pokeball and Ray put a finger to his chin.

"What to nickname you?" Ray said as he looked at the big headed penguin.

"I'll just call you Pip for now!" Ray said as the penguin looked in total dismay at his poor naming skills.

"Pip,pip luppppp!" The bird said angrily.

"Nice nice, what do you say about me being your first Pokemon battle partner huh?" Amanda asked.

"Oh yeah my first official battle! Bring it!" Ray shouted and Pip also moved into positions happily.

"Alright I'll take it easy on you by using my newest Pokemon..... Listen!" Amanda shouted as she released a black and red kitty cat from a pokeball.

"Pip use peck! Am sure you know that right!" Ray shouted still unsure of Piplup's moveset.

"Piiiiii!" The birds yellow beak grew longer and white as it ran towards the cat.

(Heh, this is easy, along with Piplup's bad attack stats, litten has the hidden ability intimidate. Which will make that peak attack useless) "Go litten stand your ground and retaliate!" Amanda commanded.

"Liiiit!" The cat cried as it released it's intimidating aura to drop Piplup's attack however...

Piplup's aura glowed red as it's attack instead increased, the penguin smiled as it landed an attack on litten's chest.  
"Pipppp!" 

"Li.......!" Litten was pushed all the way to the other side of room by the Peck attack.

"What?" (Was that.... 'Defiant?' that Piplup's got a hidden ability as well!)  
Amanda said in disbelief.

"Wow Pip! Did you get stronger from that intimidate? It must be your ability or something! Awesome we won our first battle!" Ray shouted while jumping in the air and Piplup did the same.

(But still why would that Piplup choose him, and also develop have a hidden ability at the same time, weird) "Gee willickers Mary Ann! I was blown away by your potential, well I wish you good luck in your future battles bye!!!" Amanda said before rushing out.

"Huh okay bye, what's her deal?" Ray asked his partner who looked even more confused.

As Amanda ran out of the laboratory she could only think of one thing (this got become a big problem in future).

As Ray walked back to professor Jenner with Piplup riding on his shoulder, he sees a boy with black hair wearing dark clothing, a blue frog with white bubbles on it's neck.

"Am back from amethyst cave professor, Froakie a bit hard to handle but am getting used to him" the boy said as he looked at his frog.

"Wow that's a starter from kalos, hey can we battle!" Ray quickly asked.

"Oh Ray. It seems you picked Piplup, I was sure you would, he was waiting for a special trainer and he seems to have found one" the professor said confirming Piplup was male.

"Oh so you're the new trainer hehe, am Ren the professor aide and I accept your challenge!" Ren said with a cocky voice.

"Awesome! am Ray and I won't lose to you!" Ray shouted while making the peace sign with his fingers.

[After a serious of quick attacks it seemed like Froakie had the speed advantage giving him the win against Piplup].

"Aw I lost!!!" Ray shouted while holding a knocked out Piplup.

"Heh! That's the skill of a goldenleaf trainer! But you were awesome let's meet up again" Ren said with a bashful face.

"Huh you're leaving already?" Jenner asked.

"Yah I've got to go meet up with my friends, see you around professor, Ray!" Ren said as he ran out.

"Did I just get a rival!" Ray said with stars in his eyes.

"Back to business, Ray I need a favor from you, I just sent my daughter to route 1, could you follow her and make sure she's safe" Jenner asked.

"Your daughter? Wait a sec! Was she blonde and holding a briefcase?" Ray asked.

"Yep that's Melia, will you do it?" Jenner said with serious eyes.

"(Melia, her name's Melia...) Yeah I will" Ray said as he recalled the memory of the cute girl he met some minutes ago.

Jenner gives Ray a pokedex and a pokenav then Ray stepped out of his office, Jenner sank back into his chair as he closed his eyes (everything's in motion now).

Ray gets a lecture from Jan about the gym mechanics and how he'll help with strategies when Ray needs him, and that Gearan is owned by the Blakory family.

East Gearan gardens  
After healing Piplup Ray decided to train a bit, by doing help quests in the help center building in the city(read the Ray's side stories for more details), challenging trainers around the city, buying pokeballs, berries and potions and most of all battling wild Pokemon.

Ray entered the green gardens of Gearan, where different plants and shrubs were, the field was a grassy terrain which healed up Piplup from time to time.

Suddenly a group of grass types came from a huge bush including a Pansage(grass monkey), budew, bellsprout, lillip all part of the flower looking family.

"Alright Pip use Peck!" Ray ordered and the penguin went to work.

"Pip! pip! pip! pip!" Pip attacked all the grass Pokemon with it enlarged beak.

"Now pokeballs go!" Ray shouted as he threw 4 balls at the damaged Pokemon.

Ray caught all the grass Pokemon in the garden and sent all of them to his PC except the strongest bellsprout, a walking yellow Venus flytrap.

"Alright bellsprout welcome to the team!" Ray shouted as he and Piplup welcomed the lazy looking flytrap into his party.

Christola hotel resort  
This was the only building Ray hadn't entered in the whole city, it was a huge yellow hotel with 3 floors, inside was even more amazing as it looked so clean and well kept.

Ray walked over to the receptionist (an old man) only to be rudely received.

"We don't need street rats in here! Get out!" The man shouted.

"Who are you calling a street rat! You fat Kermit!" Ray shouted mocking the man's frog like face.

All of a sudden Ray is flung into the air by a chargeing force.

"Ahhh! ouch" Ray falls on his face after landing and jumps up to see a gold and red trolley had hit him.

"Owie powie kazowie, lowie! that hurt!" A young girl with black shoulder length hair shouted.

She had a red hair ornament that looked like a rose, her clothing looked like a black and red school uniform with a red scarf around her neck, she looked a little younger than Ray but her snarky expression made her look older.

Ray stood up to face her and she was reaching his shoulder in height.  
"What's the big idea!" He shouted.

"Ah my bad, I lost control of that thing tee hee" the girl said with her tongue out.

"Miss Saki! You shouldn't waste time on a street rat like him! He should be happy for getting run over by you" The receptionist said.

"The hell!" Ray looked at the receptionist with blood red eyes.

"Oh damn! Val will kill me if am late! By the way what's your name stranger?" Saki asked.

"It's Ray, just Ray" Ray said still pissed at the receptionist

"Well am..." Before Saki could finish.

"This is Saki Blakory! Daughter and Heir to the Blakory fortune, kneel peasant!" The receptionist shouted.

"Screw you! I don't care if she's the daughter of the king of the world, I ain't kneeling!" Ray shouted.

Saki chuckled at this scene as she walked into an elevator "You're really weird dude, I hope we Meet again, sayonara!" She said as the elevator closed.

She's weird... but also kind of cute, Ray made a mental note as he left the hotel.

Gearan train station  
As Ray was about to enter a blue and pink train station to go to route 1, he heard some God awfully loud music.  
«🎵D O G A R S Dogars!🎵»  
The music drawed his attention to a purple house.

"Veronica turn off that music before the neighbors complain again, I don't want the police involved!" A loud voice shouted from the house.

"You can't stop me mom, and don't call me Veronica!" Another voice was heard.

At that moment the roof of the house was breached and a girl came flying from it amd landed right next to Ray.

"Gyahhhhhhhh! Are you okay?!" Ray rushed over to the girl who was motionless on the ground, she had bright purple hair with pink flower hair pins, wearing a black,red and white shirt and skirt.

He picked her up and she grabbed his left hand.

"It's too late for me, I can already see the light.... If only I could taste a pecha berry one last time" the girl said softly.

Ray reached into his backpack and brought out a pink heart shaped berry, "Here.." Ray offered but in the blink of an eye the girl had engulfed the berry as well as Ray's fingers in her mouth.

The soft texture Ray felt from his fingers made his face red.(my fingers....in her mouth!! Kyahh)

The girl let go his fingers and licked her lips, "how about an oran berry when you're at it" the girl said nonchalantly.

Ray caught on to what she was doing and dropped her gently on the floor,  
"For a dying person you sure are bossy" he said as he walked back to the train station.

"Hold up, come on is it that wrong to trick people into giving you free food?.... Don't answer that" she said as she pulled on Ray's gray jacket.

"You could have just asked me normally!" Ray shouted.

"Awww you are a nice guy, my name's Venam don't call me Veronica, why don't you come hang out with me and my friends near the abandoned sewers" Venam said with a smug face as she ran off.

Ray not wanting to tick off a girl, decided to go meet her in the abandoned sewers, on the way there he met Karrina a gang leader and protector of Gearan, who offers him a place in her gang if he gets stronger.

Ray reaches the entrance to the sewer factory where he sees Ren talking to Venam. "Heh! Quit it already Veronica, that berry trick won't work on me!" Ren shouts

"Don't me call Veronica you fake ninja! As a guy you should give a girl what she wants!" Venam shouted.

"Wow you're a girl? Could have fooled" Ren retorted.

Venam saw Ray approaching her and Ren and started to cling to his jacket making Ray blush in surprise.

"Ray you see how he treats me! Awful!" Venam fake sobbed on Ray's jacket.

(Enough with the teasing already! Am at full mast!) Ray cried in his mind as smoke started coming from his head.

"Oh Ray you know Venam? Cool" Ren said to Ray who was mentally trying to keep calm.

"Oh you know Ray, Ren? Well no need for introductions Melia in the sewer and needs our help let's go!" Venam said as she let go of Ray's jacket and headed to the sewer factory door.

"Wait Melia isn't in route 1?" Ray asked.

"Nope, the powers out so she came down here to fix it" Ren answered as he and Ray walked behind Venam.

Abandoned sewers  
A place with a collection of scents, pipes and crawling with strong trainers.  
Venam quickly ran off to find Melia while Ray was left to chat with Ren.

"Welcome to the abandoned sewers, I have to admit even I ain't strong enough to March through this place alone so let's double team this, together we'll destroy them all muhahaaha!" Ren laughed evilly while Ray looked a bit confused.

"It's a joke.." Ren explained.

"Oh... Hahahahahaha!" Ray  
Gave a hefty laugh before he and Ren continue.

While battling trainers together Ray saw that Ren had a red and yellow puppy (Growlithe) now part of his own party. On the way the duo ran into one of Venam's friend, she had long curly brown hair and wore a yellow sailor school uniform.

"The name's Luca and am the toughest trainer here!" She shouted.

"Do you have to be so loud" Ren asked.

"Yes I do!, come out Patrat, Munna!" Luca sent out a rat with weird eyes and a floating pink tapir.

Ray and Ren easily took down Luca with their water staters Piplup and Froakie.

Sewerek  
After the battle Ray and Ren decided to go to the sewer restaurant Sewerek and had some mystery bowl ramen, the ingredients were unknown but it tasted pretty good, while Ren was slurping down the Noddles he turns to see Ray adding mustard to his.

"Is it tasty? With mustard?" Ren asked. 

"Yah kinda tangy tho" Ray said with a mouthful of yellow noodles.

Ren tried some mustard to Ray's surprise, nobody has ever tried his weird food combos before.

"Actually pretty good, weird but good"  
Ren said as he took another bite.  
Ray smiled a bit and continued eating.

On the way to the electric grid, Ray and Ren are stopped by a horde of noibats the sound wave Pokemon, Ray attempt to catch one but...

"Pokeball go!" Ray threw the ball at one of the big eared purple bat but it avoids it.

"Woo woo!!!" A ball of green fluff with wings and a pig nose is hit instead and is caught instead.

"Oh damn i caught a woobat instead, pfft... let's just go" Ray says in disappointment, it was his last pokeball now he couldn't catch anymore.

Power grid  
Ray and Ren in a place filled with generators and sees venam and Melia talking about something.

"See Melia the experiment worked the trash bags aren't here anymore, if they turn out shiny it will mean you've got an aura ability!" Venam said waving her hands in the air.

"We can solve that later for now what do you think is cutting the electric wires here?"

"Hey ladies! The guys are here!" Ren said as he puffed out his chest.

"You sure took your damn time!" Venam shouted looking pissed.

Melia faces Ray who's cheeks start to red up from her gaze.

"You... I met you in the lab this morning didn't I?" Melia said surprised.

"Ummm yah that was me! it was destiny for us to meet, am Ray the future champion!" Ray said arrogantly as he twisted around in a circle.

"Cool am Melia. Ren, Venam let's think of a plan" Melia said coldly in response.

Melia's cold response hit Ray hard as he sulked on the floor, then all of a sudden...

"Trubb, trubbish!" Two garbage looking Pokemon came out from the flowing sewer water.

"I knew it! It worked the trash bags turned it Pokemon" Venam shouted.

"What the hell!" Ran screamed at the weird situation.

"Garbodor !!!!!" A giant purple trash monster appeared. From the sewage next to Melia on top of the electric monitor.

"Melia it's a shiny! That proves you've got an aura ability to draw in shiny Pokemon" venam shouted.

"Shut up!" Ren covered her mouth.

Ray's pokedex went to work  
Garbodor the trash heap Pokemon  
It's known for shooting out 7 different kinds of poisons from it's body.

"Garrrrr!" The trash monster reached out for Melia.

"Kyahh!" Melia shouted, but...

"Piplupp!" Pip shouted as it hit the trash monster's claw away with it's beak.

"I won't let you touch Melia you Unovan trash heap!" Ray shouted as he shielded Melia.

"I'll help out too! Go froakie!" Ren said as he released his frog to fight along side Ray.

"I've got the two trubbishs then, Zubat let's go!" Venam sent out a tiny blue bat.

"Woobat go help venam too!" Ray shouted at the fur ball sleeping in his bag.

"Woowoo!" The bat hurried to Venam's side so she could face multiple Pokemon.

"Wooooooo" woobat used a psychic wave of energy to push a trubbish back onto the sewage.

"Truuub!!!" The garbage shouted as it was knocked out.

"Holy shit! That's thing's actually strong?" Ray said wondering how that pig furball bat was so strong.

"Zubat wing attack!" Venam shouted as her own blue bat attacked the other trubbish making it weak.

"Go pokeball!" Venam threw her own pokeball catching the left over garbage.

"Nice one Venam!" Ray complimented.

"Ray focus on the boss!" Ren shouted as the shiny Garbodor used pound on Piplup.

"Pip!" Piplup screamed as it was pushed back.

"Oh damn Piplup we can't attack on close range so use bubble!" Ray said.

Piplup not happy with it's trainer's decision begrudgingly shot out a stream of blue bubbles at Garbodor forcing it back.

"Garboooooo!" The trash monster shot out it's own stream of poison as a Gunk shot, cancelling out the bubbles.

"Keep going Piplup send out more bubbles!"Ray ordered.

"You too froakie water pulse!" Ren ordered as well.

" Pipppplupppp!," Froooookie!" The penguin and the frog sent out their water bubbles and orb attacks at the same time and collided, forming a blue light.

"That's!" Melia shouted surprised.

The orb of spiral water was now surrounded by bubbles, a COMBO MOVE ‹WATER BUBBLE PULSE!›.

The combo move hit Garbodor head on and forced it back into the sewage.

"Alright!" "Good one bro" Ray and Ren fist bumped each other and so did their two water starters.

"You guys were amazing! you're really strong together to perform a perfect combo move like that!" Melia said impressed.

Ren smiled normally but Ray blushed like crazy(she's praising me!) While his penguin looked embarrassed at it's trainer's behavior.

"But still if we were in real danger I would have saved us all with this briefcase" Melia said as she lifted up the briefcase her father gave her and rubbed her cheek against it.

"You and that briefcase hehehehehe" both Venam and Ren laughed as Ray just admired how cute Melia looked while cuddling up the briefcase.

After repairing the broken pipes and   
Monitors on the sewer the group could finally chat.

"Am going to wait here and see if those things come back, later Melia, Ray and dofus!" (not like I can go back home when my mom kicked me out) Venam said cheerfully.

"I'll go to the library and study up on more moves for froakie, got to get stronger! Later Melia, Ray and trash!" Ren said as he rushed off.

"Ha! Dad said I should go do some research in route 1, hey Ray want to come with me?"

"Hehhhhh! Just the 2 of us?" Ray asked nervously.

"Yep route 1 Is a great place for rookie trainers, and it would be nice having a friend around" Melia gave a bright smile.

(A friend, even though I was kinda creepy before, she still called me a friend) "O....Kay" Ray said while scratching his hair.

(All these people Venam,Ren and even Melia haven't even sent me away or looked in disgust at my behavior. If I had people like this in Unova..... Am sure I would have been happier) Ray thought to himself as he and Melia walked out of the sewers.

Next chapter Ray's first date?!!


	4. Ray's side adventures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray gets in to some trouble

Before the major plot continues here's a bunch of short stories involving the main character Ray and others weird characters of the day... Enjoy(it's not filler I swear).

Story 1- save starly  
As Ray was strutting along the roads of Gearan feeling accomplished after receiving his starter Pokemon Piplup (AKA Pip), he stumbled upon a blue building called ,"the help center".  
Ray entered the building to see people in blue uniforms moving up and down, there was a closed door to the right that seemed important. He moved to the brunette receptionist wearing a blue apron and P cap.

"Hi there. so what exactly is this place?" Ray asked curiously.

"Oh a new trainer! Wonderful! What we do here is accept request from people in need, pin them on the request board next to me, and qualified trainers come here do those jobs for a reward" she answered straightforwardly.

"Oh sounds good!" (The money Nancy gave me is almost gone too) Ray said as he thought of killing 2 Pidoves with 1 stone, helping people out, and getting paid.

"Wonderful just look for a request on the board bring it to me and your all set" the woman said with a wide smile.

Ray walked over to the request board and picked the first one he could find, it was about a girl who got her Pokemon stolen from her and she needed help the fee was low at a rate of P300 but he still took it.  
He brought the request to the receptionist and she told him to find the girl at Gearan labs, and so Ray returned.

East Gearan laboratory  
Ray walked into the huge building and saw a raven haired little girl wearing a red dress talking to the nurse joy there, he walked over to her and she asked him...

"Are you the one who accepted my request" she said nervously.

Ray nodded and said "Yep?" Full of energy.

The girl sat down with Ray on the waiting area and explained in details about the job.

"I had a Starly, they are pretty rare in Aevium so am extra careful with him... However yesterday when I was taking a walk in Oceana pier, 3 thugs blocked my path and stole Starly.... I.... w...was too scared to fight back..." She began to sob.

Ray stood up and patted her head and she looked up to see him smiling.

"Don't worry I'll get him back for sure" Ray said removing his hand and left the lab for Oceana pier.

Oceana pier  
3 suspicious looking grown men were hovering around a small black bird.

"When the hell is boat getting here?!" One of the men with long red dreadlocks shouted.

"Just be patient Rick, besides I doubt the cops are on to us" a cue bald with a blue denim jacket said.

"Hold up!" Ray ran towards them as he headed through the pier gates.

"You just had to open your big mouth huh Mike!" Rick shouted at the bald dude.

"Mmmmmm nmmm" the third thug mumbled at his friends, he wore a black cap and wore torn clothes.

"Shut up Chuck!" Both Rick and Mike snapped at Chuck.

"If you guys are done with this farce, how about handing over that Starly huh?" Ray asked nicely as he put a hand on his backpack.

"Like hell kid! You have to take me on! Rick, leader of the Road bugs!" Rick declared as he sent out two pokeballs from his balls.

Ray quickly checked his pokedex and identified them.  
Wimpod(water/bug) a shellfish like bug Pokemon with silver armor and 6 legs.  
Grubbin(bug) a bug Pokemon with huge pincers.

"I guess I'll have to teach you guys a lesson, Pip slide in!" Ray commanded as Piplup was actually hiding in the ocean and sled up next to the pier.

"Wimpod struggle bug, Grubbin string shot" Mike ordered as both bug Pokemon shot out attacks, wimpod shot at multiple green sparks hitting Piplup and grubbin shot a long web od slick, both attacks lowered Piplup's speed and specials resulting in....

"Pipppp!!!!!!!!!!" Piplup shouted as he grew stronger from the decrease in stats thanks to Defiant.

"Pip retaliate with peck! Full power!" Ray joyously shouted.

"Pipppp!!!!!!" Piplup ran it's enlarged beak through the two bug Pokemon knocking them both out immediately.

"Holy shit kid what the hell is that bird?" Rick yelled in surprise.

"This is Piplup the best penguin in the world!" Ray praised his bird as pip gave him a flipper up(thumbs up).

'Phuuuuuuuuuu' a sound infiltrated thee area as a white and red boat came to the Port.

"Quickly Chuck get the Starly on board" Mike shouted.

"Mmmmmmn mnmmmn mmm" Chuck mumbled as he picked up the struggling bird Pokemon.

"No No don't fly away!" A womanly voice came to attention, all the people present turned to see a woman on the roof with wild shoulder length brown hair in green and pink armor.

"Gemaharuga!" The woman says with green energy flowing from her hand.

Suddenly the boat was penetrated with 3 sharp rocks that emerged from the bottom of the ocean,

"What?!" Ray said in utter shock.

The thugs no longer seeing any hope let Starly slip from their grasp and it ran all the way to Ray on the wooden pier floor.

"Okay boys you three will be coming with me, I'll give you proper slave training" the woman said with a menacing smile.

"Shut up bitch! who do you think you..." Mike retorted until...

"Aevogia!" The woman said again in a devilish tone and all 3 thugs were levitated into the air.

"Quiet Charles! That's not a proper way to answer your mistress." The woman said as she teleported to the floor near Ray.

"My name is Rick!" Rick declared.

"Later Charles, Nicolas and Sheldon" the woman then sent all 3 flying to an unknown location.

Ray quickly lost sight of them and focused all his attention on the woman.

"Don't be scared Dove. I simply helped you with saving this poor bird even though it's the trainer's fault for being careless" the woman spat out.

"She wasn't careless, it was a little girl vs 3 thugs with a Starly!" Ray defended the girl.

"Yet a young boy with an inexperienced Piplup beat them huh?" The woman retorted.

Piplup looked annoyed at the woman as he held Starly in his flippers.

"Well whatever... boy your interesting, my name is Karen am.... No let's leave that a secret for now" she said with a smile forming on her lips.

"Am... Ray. was that magic you used before?" Ray asked curiously.

"Garufa magic to be precise, you'll encounter more of it on your journey little Dove... Till next time you should go return that bird, I'll take care of this stone mess" Karen said as she placed a finger on her chin and looked at the destroyed boat.

Ray quickly hightailed it out of there before the woman went berserk on his ass.

Gearan laboratory  
"Thank you so much you saved Starly!" The little girl said cuddling the bird in her arms.

"All in a day's work for a future champion" Ray rubbed his nose as he puffed out his chest.

"I want to get stronger like you! So I'll be able to defend myself next time!" The girl declared with fierce eyes and so did her Starly.

"That's great I'll be looking forward to your progress" Ray smiled as he pat her on the head.

After Ray returned to the help center collected his reward and took another quest.  
End

Story 2- Missing Mom  
Lilgant salon  
Ray entered a building with green leafy being as the logo. Inside was a girl with long braided pigtails wearing pink dress and black skirt and humanoid Pokemon dressed with leaves like a madam.

"We're closed right now, sorry" the girl said with a sad expression on her face.

"Aren't you Sasha? the one who wrote the request to help find your mom?" Ray asked confused.

"Oh so you're the one who accepted my request, forgive my rudeness, let's begin" Sasha said as she gave Ray a chair to sit on.

She explained to Ray that her mother hasn't been seen in 2 days and she's worried, Ray then goes around town asking about Rosa the missing mom.  
He gets a lead that she was last spotted at the Oceana pier and both Ray and Sasha go there.

Oceana pier  
Sasha leads the way to a familiar looking iron warehouse.

"I feel like I've been here before" she says as she opens the warehouse door.

The scene in front of her and Ray was of a brunet woman with a lime green dress giving hair cuts to 6 little kids.

"Miz rossa, cwan yo bwaid my hair" a girl of about 5 years said with a cute smile.

"Sure thing sweetie" Rosa said with glee.

"Mom what the hell, you've been missing for days and your here giving free haircuts!" Sasha shouted giving out her presence to everyone.

"Sasha?! No you don't understand, these orphans... I had to do it in secret since our boss the major of Grand dream city is so strict" Rosa tried to defend herself.

"You know what! Forget it!" Sasha turned her back.

"Oi! am also here, not a fan of seeing a parent and child fight so how about I pay for the orphans" Ray stepped in holding P600 in his right hand.

"You would do?" Rosa asked confused.

"No Ray you don't have to!" Sasha said agitated.

"I insist, it's a small price to pay for the kids" Ray said smiling.

"Yayyyyyy!" All the children cheered.

Sasha collected the money and made up with her mom to Ray's pleasure, after collecting the reward from the center Ray also gets a free haircut the next time he comes to the salon  
End.

Story 3- love letter  
Ray begrudgingly took this quest as matters of love weren't his strong suit, however taking this might help him learn about it.  
Ray entered the south gate area and goes upstairs to meet the client.

"Huh so you're the one who doing my request?" A guy with raven hair wearing a red tracksuit said.

"Yah that would be me! So what's the job" Ray ask with a monotonous voice.

"Am Eric by the way, could you come here and check out this telescope" Eric asked nervously.

Ray looks through the telescope and sees another guy with dark skin and white hair buying stuff.

"That's Cameron he entered a battle with a lot of fire types, am presuming he went to buy a burn heal but couldn't, so please buy a burn heal with this money and hand him the love letter too for me" Eric spat out as he handed Ray P250 and a pink letter.

Ray heads over to the shop and buys a bottle of red liquid (a burn heal) he then locates Cameron and hand him the items.

"A love letter kinda archaic but thoughtful, also how'd he know I needed a burn heal?" Cameron asked Ray confused.

"Hey don't ask the messenger, am just delivering the stuff" Ray raises his hands and backed off comically.

"Well I've seen him around and his pretty cute so tell him, we've got a date" Cameron said putting a finger on his chin.

Ray walked all the way back to Eric and gave him the news, Eric jumped in joy and thanked Ray.

"Thank you so much Ray, I'll have to work on my confidence next time so I don't rely on others" Eric said as he left.

Ray then put a fist on his chest and said "Confidence huh, at least I got something out of this weird exchange".  
End.

Story 4- Dangerous Pokemon  
Oceana pier  
Ray wonders into the pier once again to deal with a pest problem. Walking into an alley in between 2 apartment buildings he sees 3 cat like Pokemon eating garbage so he takes his pokedex out.

Litleo   
The lion cub Pokemon  
Fire and normal type  
Strong headed, they'll attack any foe even if they know they'll lose.

Ray brought out two pokeballs from his pocket and sent them out, from the blue light two forms came forth.

Pip the blue penguin and Woo the woobat a blind bat with a pig nose.

"Okay let's take care of these street cats" Ray cracked his knuckles ready to battle until.

"Oops! I just dropped my super evolution item!" A voice from the top floor of the left apartment cries out.

A weird stone drops on one of the Litleos morphing it.

"What the hell!" Ray cries out as he sees the litleo grow bigger and checks his pokedex again.

Pyroar   
The Royal Pokemon  
Evolved form of little, the females are hard working while the males are lazy but strong, their manes are extremely warm and sensitive to water.

Ray observed as the huge maned beast looked sluggish and it's red and yellow mane was swaying in wind.

"Pip bubble On the left litleo, Woo gust on the right one!"

"Pip lup lup lup!" Piplup used it's hated bubble attack on the brown lion cub knocking it out.

"Wooooooo" woobat also used it's black wings to created a small tornado throwing the other cub into garbage bin.

"Pyyyyyyy roarrrrrrrr!" Pyroar let out a strange roar that affected Pip and Woo somehow.

"It lowered their stats with roar? Crazy!" Ray looked amazed by the power of Pyroar however....

Piplup flared up as it charged at the male lion.

"Pip peck! Woo use gust to push Pip forward!" Ray ordered his Pokemon.

"Wooooooo! , pipppppp!" cried the two Pokemon as woobat sent Piplup flying with it's tornado at Pyroar.

"Eoarrrrrrrrr!!!" the lion let out a stream of fire engulfing Piplup but....

"Pippppplup!" the penguin cried as it cut through the flames with it's enlarged white beak and struck Pyroar in the forehead.

"Pyyyy!!!!!!!" the lion cried as it ran away with a litleo running behind him.

Ray then ran to his partners side and said "Yo bud you okay?" He then rubbed the ashes off Piplup's feathers while Pip protested.

"Littttt" a Litleo with a goofy smile came towards Ray happily.

"Huh? What?" Ray looked at the lion cub as woobat sat on his head.

"Lit lit Leo!" Litleo jumped up and down while looking at Ray.

"You want to come with me? Sure why not!" Ray happily accepted as he threw a pokeball at Litleo.

Starts appeared on the ball and Ray lifted it up into the sky and shouted  
"Alright i caught a Litleo!" With Piplup and Woobat now joining him in his silly pose.

"Wow that's great and all! but why don't you leave already!" The woman who dropped the Stone shouted.

"Screw you! Lady it's your fault this became harder!" Ray retorted.

"Blah blah! cry me a river kid" the lady laughed as Ray walked away furiously.  
End

Story 5- The hidden library and the shadows  
Ray had another odd job to do by asking a history teacher, the asshole receptionist from the Chrisola hotel and the notorious gang leader Karrina about a hidden library.  
The conclusion he made was that it was hidden somewhere in Gearan but it wasn't accessable to people thanks to the Garufa tribe's magic.  
He relayed the information to his client and collected his reward.

Ray then went to the normal library made of redbricks and met up with his proclaimed best friend and rival Ren.

"Yo bro what's up?" Ray asked Ren as he took a seat.

"Just researching on this shadow Pokemon stuff hear this..." Ren said as he told Ray some important information.

Shadow Pokemon are beings that have closed off their hearts, and are extremely powerful, the only way to purify them is to open their hearts and enter a pure area away from malice AKA the spring of purification.

The two boys continued to read up until a commotion upstairs about a woman called Zumi interrupted them.

"Hey Ray shouldn't you be on your way to meet Melia?" Ren asked confused.

"Damn that's right!" Ray said with his face blushing up.

"Don't worry about me I'll be here reading more about this stuff" Ren said with a yawn.

The two friends exchanged their goodbyes and Ray went off to meet Melia.  
End

Next time the main story continues.


	5. Date with destiny

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Melia and Ray's date

Gearan train station  
Ray stands next to the train station as he addresses his Pokemon.

"Pip fresh water! Woo lemonade! Leo lava cookies, and bellsprout......"  
Ray says to his Pokemon but notices one is sleeping.

Piplup his water penguin starter was holding two water bottles while woobat the pig nosed bat was using it's psychic abilities to hold two bottles of lemonade mid air, while Litleo the brave lion cub held a bag of cookies in it's mouth but strange enough bellsprout the flytrap was sleeping on the ground.

'Sighhhhhhhh' Ray sighed as he collected the items and recalled his Pokemon except Piplup who he held in his arms.

"Piiiipiip lupppp!" The penguin protested but Ray didn't let go instead held it like a teddy bear and entered the train station.

To his surprise a familiar face was there, a woman with read hair wearing a red and white flame pattern dress.

"Tesla!" Ray said in surprise.

Tesla noticed him and rushed towards him inspecting his body for injuries.

"Ray how's your health? You're not suffering any wounds from yesterday right?" Tesla asked worried.

"I'm fine ma'am, as fine as I could be anyway" Ray said with mixed feelings.

"I can see that, I assure you I'm having my people look for the ship as we speak" Tesla assured Ray and he smiled a bit.

"So you're heading to goldenwood forest? With how you're packed it looks like your going on a date" Tesla teased.

"Datttteoooo? It's not like that, I'm just meeting someone there for research that's all!" Ray nervously tried to hide his reddened face.

"Haaaaaa, to be young again" Tesla smiled and remembered when she was a young girl going a date with a guy who strangely reminded her of Ray.

"Anyway I have an extra ticket for you to board the train, I also have something for this little guy" Tesla said as she pinched the cheeks of Piplup making angering(gave him a ticket and more cookies).

"Thank a lot Tesla, honestly you've done a lot for me, I'm grateful" Ray bowed his head as he left Tesla and went to meet a train conductor wearing green uniform.

"We'll meet again for sure, till then stay safe" Tesla said as she left the train station to her own destination.

Ray boards a silver train cart and within 5 minutes he reaches his destination.

Goldenwood forest  
Ray steps out of cart and sees the forest the grass the leaves on the trees and all the vegetation were coloured gold.  
Ray inspect the grass to see if it was actually gold but it was just grass. Even Piplup was surprised by the scenery.

"Aevium sure has some amazing places alright" Ray said as he walked north deeper into the forest.

Ray then sees the exact person he wanted to, a blonde girl with a silver briefcase staring at the sky, her white top complemented her black bike shorts.

"Oh so you made it, I was beginning to think you wouldn't come" the girl said with a pouty face.

"Sorry Melia, Ren held me up at the library" the dark skinned boy explained.

"Ren at the library huh, seems like he considers you a great rival then" Melia says with a smile, making Ray also smile.

"Alright let's get a move on!" Melia starts to move north again and Ray walks beside her.

He imagines holding her hand but quickly removes the though from his mind.

As they enter another section of the forest Ray makes a remake.  
"This place is more like a park than a forest" they are numerous benches and swings around that make the place look more like a family park than a forest.

"Indeed, regardless let's start researching, now which area first?" The blonde girl asks.

"Lead the way captain!" Ray salutes strangely making Melia giggle.

"Hehehe alright I'll lead the way" Melia says and Ray follows 

(Montage)  
Melia and Ray see 2 butterfly like Pokemon and Ray's pokedex identifies them as vivillon the scale Pokemon, one with white wings faced Melia while the one with blue wings was attracted to Ray, the butterflies danced around then flew away leaving the couple in awe, Melia then wrote something down in her note book.

Near a lake in the forest, Melia opens her briefcase and gives a fisherman wearing a red vest a special high-tech fishing rod to use. The man puts throws the line with bait into the water and almost immediately the bait is taken, Ray and Melia watch in awe as the man battles with the fish and finally flings it into the air, a second later a huge red fish(Magikarp) falls from the sky and hits the fisherman on his head, Melia and Ray both laugh hard at the situation in front of them.

Melia enters a field of flowers and starts to gently sniff them, Ray blushes at the sight of her smiling face, her innocence and cuteness showing as well, she starts to hum a beautiful tone that seems to mesmerize Ray even more until an angry Gardener drives them away.

At the lake again Melia befriends 3 black fishes called Finneon, she opens her briefcase then pours some Pokemon food into the water and they Chow down, Ray wonders why Pokemon seem to flock around her.

The two then encounter a little girl with pink hair stuck in a tree, Ray climbs it and brings her down, hand in hand the 3 walk all the way out of the forest and the little girl waves them farewell.

Suddenly a whole flock of white and blue winged Vivillon surround the two and dance around creating a spectacular performance for Melia and Ray.  
(End of montage)

Goldenwood cove

An large entrance into a small mountain in the forest, it's covered by shrubs and mushrooms which are also golden.

"Finally goldenwood cove, Dad said I should investigate something in here, it's weird cause I usually do more local research on Pokemon behavior oh well, see you inside" Melia says this and enters the cave.

Ray looks around before entering and sees a woman with a large dog sitting on the bench.

"Hello ma'am what a huge dog you've got there" Ray says as he approached the fluffy white dog.

"I see you've got a Keen eye boy, this is a furfrou, both of us are from the Kalos region, we're here on vacation though" the old woman said with pride in her voice.

Ray countined to play with the white hound who also licked his face and barked "bork bork" Piplup also seemed to like the dog as it snuggled up to it. 

"Hehehe, I want a dog Pokemon as well, my name's Ray by the way" Ray introduced him.

"Charmed to meet you Ray, I'm Gloria, I've seen some rockruff running around here you should try and catch one" the old lady tells Ray with a smile.

"Thanks bye Gloria, bye furfrou" Ray runs off waving at the old lady and her dog.

Eastern part of the forest  
After searching for 3 minutes Ray and Piplup stumbles upon a strange scene.

"Mimikyuuuuu!", "Drifffffffff" Ray's Sees 2 Pokemon divided by a stream between the forest floor, one is big purple balloon like creature with 4 arms while the other resembles the electric rodent Pikachu but the color was darker and it's skin looked like cloth.

"Drifffffffff" suddenly the balloon flew up and drifted towards the Pikachu lookalike and picked it up then brought it to the right side of forest.

"Mimikyuuuuu!" The creature looked happy that it's friend helped it across.  
"Good for you" Ray said also kind of interested in the scene "pipiplup" Piplup also gave a happy cry.

"There you 2 are? You had me worried sick" a woman wearing a dark gown, a black tiara and dark purple hair walked towards the two Pokemon.

After scolding the 2, she turned to Ray "I'm sorry if they gave you any trouble"

"Not at all!" Ray said as he waved his hands.

"hmmmm strange, you've got a lot of patience don't ya, we need more people like you in goldenwood town" the woman says as she puts a finger to her chin.

"Huh?", "pip?" Both Ray and Piplup are confused by her words.

"Anyway thanks for looking after them, here. Come along children" the woman hands Ray a small bottle of black liquid then leaves with the 2 Pokemon behind her.

"Weird... Huh wait a second" Ray says as he hears some rustling in the grass.

"Ruff ruff ruff!" A Brown puppy with rocks on it's neck jumps from the tall golden grass ready for a battle.

Ray uses his Pokedex and analyzes it.  
Rockruff the puppy Pokemon  
It's a rock type, it's very loyal to it's trainer and can even save them in dire situations, the males have sharper rocks on their necks than females

Ray notices that the one in front of him is a female, "Yosh! Let's do this".

"Piplupppp!" Piplup jumps from Ray's arms and readies for battle.

"Not you! You're too strong, you'd knock it out!" Ray scolds the penguin to his face making him pissed.

"Leo I choose you!" Ray brings out a poke ball and flings it into the air unleashing a brown and red Lion cub.

"Litlitleooooo!" Leo roared with excitement as it and Rockruff ran in circles.

"Rufffff" Rockruff shot out 5 rocks from her tail at Litleo.

"Dodge it! Then use Noble roar!" Ray commanded, and Leo managed to dodge all the rocks.

"Leoooooooooooooo!" Leo roared with pride in it's tiny voice lowering the attack and special attack power of Rockruff.

"Rufffff!" Once again the puppy shot out rocks but to her surprise Litleo wasn't even phased by this.

"Alright headbutt now!" Ray ordered the finishing blow.

"Littttt!" Leo used it's head to knock Rockruff to the ground, "Rocccc" the puppy cried out.

"Alright pokeball goooooooo!" Ray struck a pose and threw another ball at the puppy.

'awar', 'awarr', 'awarrr', 'pufff' stars appeared from the pokeball symbolising that the catch was a success.

"Awesome I just caught a Rockruff!", "Leooo!", "Piplupppp" Ray celebrated and so did Litleo and Piplup.

Goldenwood cove  
Ray decided to name the puppy Rocky and she joined his current team, he then returned to the cave to meet a very pouty Melia who he apologized to again.

The two then teamed up against the double battle trainers in the cove, with Melia revealing her main Pokemon Togepi (a spike ball like thing coming out of an egg) nicknamed Hapi.

As they got to the edge of the cove Ray was challenged by Mars of the culvier clan a woman with white hair wearing red and black traditional clothing, she sent out a leavvany a grass and bug type pray mantis, while Ray sent out his resented pig bat woo.

Woo ends the battle with a single Gust attack once again surprising Ray at how strong it was, after Mars gave him a Star shard for his victory something strange happened.

"Wooooooo!" Woobat started to glow blue and white.

"What's this?!" Ray said surprised.

"It's evolving!" Melia shouted excited and started jotting down the details.

Woobat's wings grew bigger, it's head grew out of the green fluff showing it's big eyes and fused ears, it also gains small black feet, and it grows a tail that looks like 2 tentacle wrapped together.

"Swoobattttooo!" The creature smiles and flies around.

"That's Swoobat the courting Pokemon, it normally evolves from high friendship but this is kinda of fast" Melia says confused.

Swoobat clings to Ray's arm with it's tail and rubs it's cold and wet pink nose against Ray's face.

"Eww don't touch me with that thing!!!" Ray struggles to get the bat off him but it clings tighter.

Melia witnesses a very strange look of ecstacy from Swoobat's face (So Pokemon also display masochistic behavior.... Fascinating) Melia thinks to herself as Ray continues to suffer from bat affection.

Melia and Ray see a wall with ancient writing on it, the blonde girl takes out her camera and snaps some photos of it, "Say cheese!" Melia faces Ray and takes an awkward picture of him blinking.

"Still I wonder why dad wanted me here...." Melia says as she touches the wall but then...

'crumbleeeeeeeee!' the wall falls down on itself leading into a secret tunnel.

"You now what, never mind!" Melia does a little dance and drags Ray into the tunnel.

Secret forest garden  
The tunnel led to a secret garden, the scenery was gorgeous, the environment seemed even more sparkly than the other areas, Vivillon surrounded the area as well.

"This place is amazing..." Ray said in awe.

"It's looks like a perfect place for a date" Melia says smiling

"Yah... A date?!!!!!!" Ray's face gets red as he realized what Melia was saying.

Melia smiles and sets up a picnic blanket near an old statue, she opens her briefcase sets plates for her and Ray and all their Pokemon, Ray also brings out the drinks and cookies he bought (saying it's was coincidence), 

An hour later  
The day had already reached it's halfway point and Ray was enjoying Melia's company.

"Today was 100% percentage awesome" Melia remarks with a smile.

Ray observes the old statue and says,  
"Hey ain't that Arceus?"

"Yep the creator of all Pokemon, maybe that's why all the Vivillon are here they are the butterflies of fate after all" Melia answers.

"But still a day like this only comes once a year, a day where you meet a life long friend" Melia says again with a smile.

"Who's that?" Ray asked confused 

"You silly!" Melia laughed and punches him in the arm, Ray's face turns to an even deeper shade of red as he looks away from her.

Melia stops laughing and then looks at Ray seriously.

"Ray, this is my last day on Flora island (where Gearan city is located) next tomorrow I'll be heading to Grand Dream City to become the new gym leader" Melia says with a sad tone.

"Eh.....I......." Ray is speechless after this entire day for her to drop a bombshell like this was unexpected.

"I'm sorry for not telling you sooner, it's just that Ren is staying here to work with my dad and Venam's got her own gym to take care of....." Melia struggles to say.

"It's really scary to live in an unknown city, so I was wondering....... since you don't have a place to stay..... Would you come with me?" Melia asked red faced.

Ray EXE has stopped working

Ray's fantasy  
A month later ray and Melia are living in a huge apartment together  
In Grand Dream City

"Welcome back Melia, how's the gym?" Ray greets an exhausted Melia as she enters the apartment door.

"It's hard, the trainers keep coming one after the other, the best thing about my day is coming back to you" Melia says as she hugs Ray's back.

Ray turns around and embraces her soft body, "Melia you always say the best things" he starts to nuzzle on her neck and she let's out a moan "uhhhh".

Before he can get to the good stuff a bright light wakes him up  
End of fantasy

"Ray! Earth to Ray!" Melia looks at a red faced Ray with steam coming out of his head.

"Huh?" Ray recollects his senses.

"Do you want to come with me?" Melia asks again.

Ray resisting the urge to shout yes says,  
"Well I would love to, but isn't this a big question for someone you just met? Can you really trust me this much?"

"Well the best way to answer that is with a battle" Melia gets up and re calls all her Pokemon into their balls.

"Alright then, let's do this" he does the same but leaves Swoobat to continue eating it's Pokemon food.

"Just because I'm nerdy doesn't mean I can't battle Buneary hop to it" Melia says as she sends out a fluffy rabbit with a strange color pattern (shiny).

"Rocky time for your debut!" Ray sends out his newest Pokemon Rockruff.

"Buneary double hit!" Melia screamed, "bunnnnnnn!" Buneary lands 2 solid Hits on Rockruff with it's speed.

"Rocky retaliate with rock throw!", "Rufffff!" Ray orders and his dog delivers 5 sharp rocks hitting the bunny and doing a lot of damage.

"Finish it with take down!" Melia shouts.

"Bun earyyy!", "Rocccccc" Buneary charges at Rockruff and lands a devastating headbutt that knocked both Pokemon out.

"Seriously! No prob, Leo your up next" Ray recalls Rocky and sends out Litleo.

"I won't lose again, Eevee go!" Melia recalls the rabbit and send out a dog like creature with strange colors schemes(shiny)

(Are all her Pokemon shiny?) "Leo headbutt!" Ray orders.

"Not a chance Eevee double edge!" Melia orders.

"Litttttttttt!", "Eeeeeveeeeee!" The Pokemon collided head to head the immense shock knocked both out again.

"Seriously is that your strategy?!" Ray shouted confused and returned Leo to his ball.

"Tee hee" Melia played dumbed as she recalled her Pokemon.

"Try that again with this guy, bellsprout!" Ray sent out hos laziest Pokemon the walking flytrap.

"Belllu......." The plant stopped it's cry midway and dozed off, much to Ray's annoyance.

"Stufful gooooo!", "Stuuuf" Melia sent out another strangely coloured (shiny) teddy bear like Pokemon.

"Vine whip!!!" Ray legit had to shout to wake up his Pokemon.

"Bell!" Bellsprout looking pissed whipped the teddy bear with it's elongated leaf hands powered up by the forest terrain dealt major damage.

"Oh no you don't, take down now!" Melia orders the teddy bear.

Effortlessly bellsprout dodges all the bears attacks by swaying back and forth.

"End it with infestation!" Ray orders and bellsprout unleashed a tornado of tiny green bugs that knocked Stufful.

"No Stufful!" Melia cried.

"You sure are strong for a lazy flower you" Ray said to his plant which had once again taken a nap on the floor.

"Hapi you can do this!" Melia sent out her ace the Togepi (also shiny).

"Togepiiiiii" the spiky egg cried fiercely.

"Alright Pip you're up" Ray recalled bellsprout and went with his strongest Pokemon.

"Pip!" Piplup had a smug expression as it looked at Togepi.

"Hapi metronome!" Melia ordered.

"Togepiiiiii!" The spiky egg twindled it's finger in the air and shot out a high powered thunderbolt at Piplup.

"Piiiiii!" Piplup endured the pain and stood like a boss.

"Huh?!" Melia was surprised by the penguin.

"Alright do your thing Pip peck!" Ray commanded.

"Pip! Lup!" Pip elongated it's beak and landed a critical hit on Togepi breaking part of it's shell and knocking it out.

"Thanks for trying Hapi, Well I can't expect to win every battle this is the start of my gym leader career" Melia said as she admitted defeat.

"We can have more battles like that in Grand Dream City, let's pack up for today" Melia also said as she started to pack the plates.

"Let me help you with the blanket" Ray offers and as soon as he does everywhere turns blue.

(What) both Melia and Ray think to themselves as a huge explosion is heard and the blue tilt disappears.

"What was that?!" Melia says as she runs back to the forest through the cave.

"Melia wait..." Ray runs after her but is stopped by the appearance of a white beast.

It's had white fur, it's dark blue claws, face and horn made it look dangerous but it's red eyes gave a more calm feeling.

Ray quickly recognized it from the stories Nancy used to tell him, the beast was an Absol, the disaster Pokemon,  
Whenever this Pokemon is seen disaster is quick to follow.

To be continued


	6. Rift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray vs the Rift Gyarados

The white beast gazed upon Ray with it's crimson eyes and as quick as it came it vanished. Ray stood in silence for about 20 seconds before chasing after Melia again.

Goldenwood forest  
Ray See's that the once beautiful scenery was now bellowing with smoke, in front of him he sees Melia talking to a man and a woman about the explosion.

Suddenly an elderly woman wearing white covered in dust came rushing over to the group, this was the woman Ray met before Gloria.

"Please help me those ruffians stole my precious furfrou..... Wait a second that's Ray please help" Gloria recognizes and asks for help.

Before he can even answer a group of Team Xen grunts make their way towards the cave entrance.

"Hey wait we ain't done stealing from you" the male one in the middle said smiling evilly.

"Sir it seems our Target is here as well" the female grunt alerted.

"Alright then come here woman!" The second male grunt to the left said rudely to the group.

"Oh my! You had your eyes on lil old me? I'm not as young as I used to be but it seems I've still got it! Hohohoho!" Gloria dances around and smacks her old ass making everyone present cringe.

"Ewwww why would we want a gross old lady like you! Shut up granny!" The rude grunt shouted.

"why I never!" Gloria said as she turned her head away from them.

"We're looking for for a blonde girl named Melia, we have orders to kidnap her, and if you don't comply" the male grunt leader said as he took out a purple pokeball.

'popppp!' from the ball came a truly gut turning sight, a glowing purple cat with a coin on it's forehead, veins all around it's body, it's mouth foaming, and it's red eyes filled with hate stared at them.

"Shit Medalis lied, the changes are too visible!" The grunt leader cried.

"No no that's impossible! A shadow Pokemon?!" Melia screamed at the monstrosity in front of her, everyone else we're still speechless.

"Yep it's a shadow Pokemon alright! Like team cipher's but stronger" The female grunt boasted.

"I can't stand this crap anymore! Team Xen is going down!" Ray said full of anger.

"This is definitely a time of emergency" Melia says this, drops her briefcase case and inserts certain numbers '6489'.

Smoke emerges from the briefcase revealing a transparent glove like object "Could it be? Ray catch!" Melia tosses the glove at Ray.

"Huh wowww!" As Ray tries to catch the glove, it inserts itself on his arm automatically.

"Ray listen this might sound crazy but try catching that Pokemon" Melia said with all seriousness as she looked at him.

"buhahahahhahah! No way Meowth finish them" the grunt leader ordered.

"Nyasuuuu!" The demonic creature longed at Ray however.

"I trust you Melia! Pokeball go!!!" Ray tossed the pokeball with his right hand where the glove was, and strangely enough the pokeball shot out an energy net that “snagged” the shadow Pokemon immediately.

"Impossible you snagged it!" The grunt leader cried

"I knew it was a snag machine" (but why would dad give that to me) Melia said.

"Give it back! I raised Meowth from an egg", "yah only team Xen are allowed to steal Pokemon", "bloody hypocrite!" The Xen grunts all piled on insults towards Ray.

"Shut up!" Ray shouted back shutting them up.

"If you truly loved it you wouldn't have done this it!" Melia added.

"You'll pay for this! You won't leave this forest!" The grunts said before retreating.

"Alright people you should all hide in the cave, since it's me their after I'm sure they won't hurt any of you" Melia suggested and the crowd ran into the cave.

"I'll protect you Melia I promise" Ray said as he put a hand to his chest.

"Thank you, I'll try my best to support you" Melia smiled making Ray blush again.

The two continued to rush deeper into the forest, unknown to them a powerful for was standing in their way.

Cliffside  
Near the lake in front of the forest exit was a small cliff. 3 people stood there wearing black uniforms with the x symbol on them.

The woman standing on the left side of the cliff looked bored as hell, her expression was that of a person who wanted nothing to do with anything at all.

Her orange hair was tied into two ponytail that stayed by her right and left side with two purple hair pins on each side as well, her uniform had more red on it than other Xen members.

Standing on the right side was a tall man with black hair,his uniform had more black on it than red.

His expression was that of a confused human being wondering about numerous things at once.

And finally the third person had a long blue jacket on covering his Xen uniform, his Ash blonde hair tied at the back into a spiky ponytail.

His expression was that of anger and frustration, no doubt do to the task he was fulfilling, in front of him was nothing less than a tear in the sky itself.

Suddenly the grunt Ray had defeated came towards the cliff and knelt down.

"Sir we have a problem, we found the girl but she was with this unnaturally strong weirdo who snagged my shadow Pokemon" the grunt said.

"Just great, they've got a snag machine I'm pretty sure this ain't a coincidence, no matter I'll deal with them after the Rift is finished, until then Eli, Shantel protect me!.

"Sir yes sir" Eli the tall grunt said while saluting with the wrong hand.

The girl however face palmed  
"It's Sharon not Shantel" she said unmotivated.

"Whatever just do your job Shanty" the blonde guy said again.

Meanwhile  
Evening had come and Ray was snagging all the team Xen grunts shadow Pokemon, he had snagged a shadow Finneon and Cacnea(cactus Pokemon) Melia healed up both their Pokemon when the chance appeared.

Suddenly the sky was blackened and the two know the only way to save the forest was on the cliffside blocked by grunts.

"You aren't going any further" the Sharon Said.

"Steal the girl yes, sell her to high ups" Eli said in a strange tone

"you mean capture... Also we're not selling her" Sharon corrected

"Yes that, we kill girl too!" Eli said with vigour.

"Ehhhhhhuuhhhhhhhh!" Melia screamed and hid behind Ray.

"Screw you! I won't let that happen!" Ray raised his fist.

"We're leaving this place!" Melia shouted at the elites.

"We're elites you can't win just give up and spare me the drama" Sharon said again.

"No way, don't underestimate us!"  
Ray and Melia said in sync.

Eli and Sharon sent out a black crow and a ghost Pokemon,  
"Misdreavus go!", "Murkrowww!"  
"Misssssss!, "Murrrr!" The ghost and the crow flew alongside each other.

Ray and Melia brought out their strongest Pokemon as well.  
"Pip I choose you!", "Hapi show up!" "Pippp lupp!", "Togepiiiiii!" 

The double battle took place at that moment.

"Misdreavus use hex!", "Murkrow feather dance" Sharon and Eli commanded.

"Missss!" Misdreavus shot a laser of darkness at Hapi but it wasn't effective.

"Krowwww" the bird laced Piplup down feathers in hopes of lowering it's attack however

"Pipppppp!" Piplup's aura flared up showing that it's ability Defiant was working.

"Thanks for the power boost! Pip Peck attack!" Ray's battle instincts kicked in and Piplup went to work.

"Luppppp!" Pip struck the black crow with enough force to fall a tree, "murrrr!" The crow fainted.

"Muuuuuuuuuh!" Eli screamed like a kid having a tantrum as he re called his Pokemon.

"Hapi retaliate with metronome!" Melia ordered, "togepiiiiii!" Hapi wiggled it's finger and a huge black energy ball(shadow ball) shot out towards misdreavus knocking it out.

"Well that sucks" Sharon retrieved her ghost and brought out a metal rod from her back pocket.

"Give up never we!" Eli shouted as he also brought out a metal rod to fight the kids with.

Ray shielded Melia as he also took a fallen tree branch to fight with then.....

"Garboooooo! ooo!" A nasty smell came from the treetops, it was the shiny Garbodor Ray had fought in the abandoned sewers.

Sharon and Eli looked at the beast with eyes of greed catching a shiny was viewed upon as an achievement.

"Yo boss, this garbage thing seems like a threat so Eli and I'll have to deal with it byeeeee!" Sharon and Eli then chased after the garbage monster far from Melia and Ray's position.

"Garbodor..... Thank you, Ray we have to save the forest" Melia pleaded with the dark skinned boy.

"No worries you've got the future champion on your side!" Ray gave a thumbs up and the two continued up the cliff.

They stopped as the saw a man standing on the edge of the cliff sending out a strange red aura into the tear in the sky. The man turned to look at Ray and Melia and he had a pissed off expression.

"The hell are they feeding you kids nowadays...well whatever I'm Zetta an admin of team Xen.

"I'm Ray and I'm here to kick your ass!" Ray struck another pose.

"Ray...... Buhahaha did your parents hate you or something! Buhahaha!" Zetta laughed at Ray pissing him off.

"Screw you! Nancy gave me that name cause I'm a "Ray of hope!" And I'll definitely save her......" Ray was giving a speech but Zetta lost interest and turned to Melia.

"So you're Melia huh? You're cuter in person" Zetta said giving a small smile.

"Leave this forest" Melia stated as she moved closer to Zetta.

"Can't do that girly, Ray hahaha, where'd you get that device on your hand?" Zetta asked.

"None of your beeswax!" Melia replies and sticks out her tongue at him.

"It's definitely part of my “beeswax” that thing negates a huge chunk of team Xen's plan, now give it here!" Zetta shouts at Ray.

"Hell no!"Ray holds his right hand and stares daggers at Zetta.

The blonde Man grimished at the attitude of the kids.  
"Fine then", 'swoooosh!' Zetta flings a red disk into the tear in the sky and it expands rapidly and turns red with black lines.

"You're probably wondering what this is, it's a “Dimensional Rift!” it's the ultimate weapon and makes a great transportation"Zetta makes the voice of a salesman when advertising the Rift.

"Weapon?" Melia asked.

"That's right, by placing a normal Pokemon in the Rift it's miasma mutates the Pokemon making it a monsterous force of destruction!" Zetta shouted.   
"I'm not a fan of using that method though, it's more like a last resort" Zetta explains.

"After all that, how about we play a game Ray?" Zetta suggested.  
"If I win you hand over the snag machine and Melia, but if I lose I'll use this Rift and destroy you"

"That's unfair you dumbass!" Ray shouted.

"You're the only one who gains anything out of that!" Melia yelled

"Genius right? Anyway time to end this, Sayonara" Zetta states as he brought out 4 pokeballs.  
"Minior you first!" He tossed a ball and a rock shelled Pokemon came flying towards Ray.

"Pip go!" Ray sent out Piplup to defend him.

"Rock throw!", "Bubble!" Zetta and Ray commanded at the same time.

Pip's bubble attacks overwhelmed the rocks and hit the flying meteor head on knocking it out.

"Not done yet Grimer, Cyndaquil now" Zetta threw out more pokeball Grimer was a being of purple sluge amplified by shadow energy while Cyndaquil was a normal mouse Pokemon with fire on it's back.

"Pip bubble again!" Ray commanded Piplup and the penguin shot a barrage of bubbles at the fire mouse knocking it out instantly.

"Grimmmmmmm!" The shadow Pokemon launched itself at Piplup.

"Snag on!!!" Ray shouted as he threw a pokeball with his right hand snagging the shadow Grimer.

"Frustrating! Fine how will you handle this go Zepto!!!" Zetta sent out a dark four legged beast, it's face was covered by a rusted iron mask, it's claw we're as sharp as razors(type null).

(A type null?! But for him to have one?) Melia pondered in her mind as Ray was still oblivious to the beast's true identity.

"Crush claws!" Zetta ordered and the beast pounced on Piplup delivering a painful claw attack on his pelt.

"Pippppppluppppp!!!! Piplup tumbled away in pain.

"Damnit I can't lose you now, Pip return!" Ray returned Piplup into his ball.

Melia was utterly shocked at the power of the beast in front of her.

"Hahahaha, giving up, afraid of Zepto's power huh? hahahaha!" Zetta taunted Ray like a Maniac.

"Swoo, let's do this!" Ray sent out the only evolved Pokemon he had, Swoobat.

"Swoobattttooo!" The pig nosed bat entered the battle with a big grin.

"you think you can escape his claws in the sky? Zepto air slash!" Zetta commanded and the beast silently followed up by sending numerous blades of wind at the bat.

Swoobat dodged majority of the blades but was hit by a few strangely it was still smiling.

"Time for the debut of a new move! Heart stamp!" Ray ordered and Swoobat swooped into action.

"Swoooooo!" Swoobat coated itself in pink psychic energy and tackled the dark beast with it's pig nose.

"Grrrrrr" the beast bit down as it was knocked to the side.

"What are you doing keep attacking! Air slash!" Zetta yelled.

"No backing down! heart stamp!" Swoobat countined it's psycho tackle.

Zepto tried it's best to shoot down the bat but Everytime it hit Zepto flinched until the beast dropped to it's knees.

"Pffttt I lost well I'm impressed not going to lie" Zetta returned Zepto to it's pokeball.

"Just stop all of this, stop using shadow Pokemon!" Melia pleaded.

"Why don't you stop breathing! Now you people have forced my hand!" Zetta yelled at the two before flinging a huge red fish into the Rift turning it blue.

"Gyaaaaaaaaarraaaaa" a loud voice is heard from the Rift and suddenly a large purple serpent showed it's face, it looked at Ray with eyes of hate, it's intense Aura causing the whole area to stand still.

Ray tried to run away from the serpent but as he turned away from it his body was being sucked into the beast's mouth, "Aw shit!" Ray shouted as his body was lifted from the ground.

"Ray hold on!" Melia grabbed Ray's hand in attempts to bring him back to the ground however the force takes her to the edge of cliff next to Zetta.

"You trying to push me off no way" Zetta Mercilessly kicks Melia's stomach forcing her to let go of Ray.

Ray's expression turned grim as he was sucked into the Gyarados's mouth.

Tears flowed from Melia's eyes as she cried out for her friend, "Rayyyyy!!!".  
*  
*  
*  
*

Rift dragon gate  
"Pipppplupppp!", "Rufffff rufffff!", "Leooooo", " bellllusprouttttt", "swoooooo" noises from all around him woke a disgruntled Ray.

All 5 of his Pokemon circled around him looking worried.

"Guys where are we?" Ray asked as he cleared his eyes.

The environment was strange the sky was dark, the grass and trees were blood red, and the water was a strange indigo.

'bizzztttttt!' "download complete!" A feminine voice appeared from the silver tablet device in his bag.

"My Cybernav?" Ray touched the screen of the tablet and say strange writing  
“Rift Dex...”  
“Code Evo"  
"Ability-intimidate"  
Ray tried to wrap his head around the weird text but suddenly he heard a 'splash', the same red fish Zetta had thrown into the Rift was now splashing in the indigo water.

'splash', 'splash', 'splash', 'splash' the fish somehow managed to climb a waterfall and jump over a red gate stationed above the river.

'twikkkkkkkkk!' the fish started to glow a grimly red as the darkness of the realm infused with it, it's body grew longer, it's color changed to purple and it was multiple segments of it's body enter flashing portalsband appeared at different locations close to it through other portals. "Gyaraaaaaaaaa!" The demonic beast shouted, it wasn't as big as the one that swallowed him but was the size of a water tower.

"Ummm h.....hey buddy" Ray tried to talk to the beast but suddenly, 'zoooom' a portal appeared next to his face And a Sharp tail nearly stabbed his cheek.

"Pipluppppp", "Guwahh" Ray was tackled by Piplup and that spared him from getting impaled.

Ray opened his eyes to his other Pokemon struggling to stay alive, The Rift Gyarados was knocking them down and trashing it's body around, appearing and disappearing in different with the portals.

"Damn!!! Pip bubble!" Ray ordered as he pulled out to great balls from his bag(great balls are stronger pokeballs used to capture stronger Pokemon).

"Piplupluplup!!!", "Greatballs go" Piplup shot out a barrage of bubbles to the left side of the beast's face while Ray tossed the 2 balls at it's right.

"Raaaaaaaaaaaa!" The beast then made segments of it's long body appear from the portals and block the projectiles, even the great balls couldn't catch it.

"Gyaaaaaarrrrrrr!!!", "luppppp!" The beast shot out a blast of air from it's mouth hitting Piplup and dealing heavy damage.

"Pippp!" The dark skinned boy tried to reach for his partner but a sharp pain in his right side forced him to the ground.

A portal open up next to him and the beast's tail struck him down hard.

"Gahhhh, damnit it all!!" Ray hissed as he held his side, the pain similar to being hit by a car, he also hated the fact all his precious Pokemon were in the same position laying on the red grass.

Ray closed his eyes and wondered(How'd it come to this, not even 2 days have passed since I got here and I've had 2 near death experiences!........After finding people who don't judge me..... After getting.... friends....) Tears started to fall from his eyes.  
(I couldn't save Nancy, I can't even save Mel....) Ray stopped inner monologue due to familiar voice.

"Rayyyyy! Can you hear!" A white mist appeared in front of him.

"I won't let you fight alone! You're my friend! You have to get up!" almost like a warm shower the mist engulfed Ray giving him his strength back.

(Melia?)Ray stood up and saw the full image of the girl. Her body was pure white and bellowing like smoke in front of him. She had a determined look on.

"I believe in you!" She shouted with all her might.

These words hit Ray as he tighted his fist(was I giving up, tskkk!), He hissed at his weakness.

"Guys we're not done yet are we?!" Ray shouted at his 5 party members.

1 by 1 they all stood back up thanks to the confidence in his voice, Piplup, Swoobat, bellsprout, Rockruff and Litleo were standing up beaten and bruised.

The Rift Gyarados hissed as it readied to attack.

"Come on you dumb purple worm!, you'll be the stepping stone for my team! Our legacy starts today" Ray shouted and his entire team growled as well.

"Gyaaaaaaaaarraaaaa!!!!" Gyarados attacked with it's segmented body using the portals to ambush Ray's Pokemon however....

"Bellllll!", "Swoooooo!", "Rufffff!" , Bellsprout planted it's feet into the soil and wrapped it's long leafy arms around the serpents body and pinned it down, Swoobat used it's psychic powers to hold the body part that attacked it to the ground. And finally Rockruff's fangs turned jet black as she also bit down on the Gyarados's flesh and pinned it down too.

Gyarados's eyes grimished at the pain it felt being unable to recall it's pinned body parts.

Meanwhile Leo was roaring at full force at Piplup who was storing up it's attack power with Defiant.

"Just a little more..." Ray countined to watch unknown to him the demon serpent tail charged at his back from a portal.

"Leooooo!" Litleo saved it's trainer by leaving it's post and biting the tail and pinning it down.

"Thanks Leo! Pip, it's now or never!", "Pipppp!" Ray shouted as he picked up Piplup and ran towards the demonic beast.

"This is our full power! Super combo Peck attack!!! Oraaaaaaaa!" Ray flings Piplup at Gyarados with all his strength while Melia spiritual presence hovers above him. "Pippppppppppppppppppppp!" Piplup screams as he flies through the sky.

Gyarados bared it's fangs ready to bite down on the penguin however, due to Pip's aerodynamic built, Piplup changed it's direction midair and plunged straight through the serpents throat "yaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrr!!!" The beast cried as the overpowered Peck attack left tremendous damage on it's body.

The beast exploded in with a flash of light blinding Ray and his Pokemon, the last words he hears are...."I knew you could do it".  
*  
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*  
*  
Goldenwood forest  
Ray feels a warm and soft sensation from under his head he opens his eyes to see the smiling face of Melia.

"You did great Ray, you came back" Melia says softly and Ray notices where he's positioned.

(A lap pillow!!!!!) Ray opened his mouth in shock, his face turned bright red as well.

"Out here, Garbodor and I fought against the giant Gyarados, Zetta saved it by sending it back to the Rift, the police appeared after to help the people in the cave, then I tried to help you through the Rift" Melia relayed to Ray.

"you helped me alot honestly, also my Cybernav scanned that dimension's data for some reason, have any idea why?" Ray said as his face returned to it's normal complexion.

"I've got a theory, let's go test it" Melia lifts Ray from her laps and the two leave the forest.

East Gearan city laboratory  
Melia and Ray enter her her dad's laboratory as she hears an unfamiliar voice, the blonde girl grabs Ray and hides behind a book shelf, Ray feels her warm body touching his and blushes again.

A mortified professor Jenner was discussing with a woman wearing a red and black dress, her red shoulder length hair curled at the back like devil horns, are Ruby red lipstick being the most vibrant feature.

"First off, hanging up on me is a no no, with that out of the way, Zetta should be picking up the girl by now" the woman said with a pissed off expression.

Jenner looked sad as he faced the woman.

"Stop moping around! You've done your job, you've raised her well, now it's time you return her to team Xen, then all our lives can go back to normal" the woman continued nonchalantly.

Melia couldn't stand it anymore and came up from behind the bookshelf to confront them with hapi on her shoulder, "I knew it was all part of your plan!" 

Jenner's face brighten up "Melia! I'm glad you're safe, Ray really pulled through just like I hoped..." He expresses his feelings but Melia but Melia butts in.

"The snag machine, the cybernav all of it was part of your plan, and worse you got Ray involved in this!" Melia shouts.

Ray tries to calm her down but his injuries start to hurt again.

"Wait Melia I can explain..." Jenner is once again interrupted by someone.

"Damn Zetta couldn't do a simple task, Houndoom go!" The woman sends out a black dog with horns and white bones on it's body "Houuuuunnnn!".

"I'll deal with this in my own way from now own! Hapi metronome!" Melia ordered and the egg Pokemon wiggled it's finger "piiiiii!".

Togepi started to shine and so did Melia, Ray had an awful feeling growing in his gut.

"Ray grab my hand!" Melia offered her right hand.

In that single fate defining moment Ray ran towards her.

"Gehhhhh!" Ray stumbled and fell to the ground due to the pain in his side.

He failed to grab the girls hand and in a split second she vanished....

This moment would hunt the boy for the rest of his life "as the moment he truly lost".

To be continued


	7. Kiss of death Venam vs Ray

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Venam vs Ray

Jenner's lab  
Ray fell to the ground as the person in front of him vanished instantly.

"Nooooo!" He cried out as he held his side and stood up dispite the pain.  
"Damnit" the red haired woman in the red team Xen uniform hissed.

She then touched her left ear activating an earpiece to contact the team Xen grunts "Listen up you grunts! This is Madelis, search every nook and cranny for the blonde girl Melia! She couldn't have gotten far! Rise Team Xen!, Team Xen forever!" She shouted in hopes of pumping up the masses and she did.

All around the city team Xen grunts were looking for the blonde girl in numbers.

The red lady then looks at Jenner with hatred in her eyes, "You're a failure Jenner, I'll have to report this to ‘her’" she spits out.

She then strokes her short red hair to the back and strikes a cute pose with her touching her cheek as if sparkles were coming from that area.

As she's about to teleport away she looks at Ray trying his best to stand and says to him, "Next time you get in our way, don't expect to come back alive, Taataa!" Madelis says with a smile and vanishes into a beam of red light.

Ray's mind was still trying to figure things out as he moved his face towards Jenner who had his hands on his head.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this" the professor said to himself with the face of a grieving man.

As Ray was about to say something another person walks into the scattered lab,this person is no other than Ray's rival and Jenner's aide Ren.

The ninja like boy Sees how damaged Ray is and provides him a shoulder to lean on, "You look like shit buddy, team Xen grunts are all over the city, venam and Karrina's gang are taking down the bulk of them though" Ren informs him.

"Mel.... Melia..." Ray tries to speak but the words are difficult to say.

"Team Xen are after Melia, you must stop them at all cost, she should be at route 2 the two of you should go there, take the rail...." Before Jenner could finish something strange happened.

'bliiiiiiiikkkkk' a dark purple figure appeared between Jenner and the boys, Ray immediately recognized the creature.

"You're..... that Gothitelle from the S.S oceana!" Ray pointed a finger at the creature

"Gotttt gotttt gotttt" as if laughing the humanoid purple and pink creature had a sadistic smile on it's face.

"(Don't be alarmed she's with me)" a disembodied voice said from all directions.

"Who said that?! Come out!" Ren shouted trying to sound intimidating.

"(Shut up ninja boy, my business isn't with you. Jenner.... How irresponsible of you sending children to clean up your mess, you have no idea how it enrages me thinking about what Ray has gone through, if I hadn't interfered..... you have no idea how much a sin that is, for punishment have some alone time)" the womanly voice had a horrific sense of calmness to it and if that wasn't enough right next to Jenner a rift opened up.

Jenner couldn't react soon enough and the rift started to drag him towards it.

"Professor..... Gyah" Ren tried to reach for Jenner but the sadistic Goth Pokemon stopped him with a slap to the face.

"Giiiii giiii gothhhh!" She laughed again but this time it was more like a Maniac than a sadistic laugh, while Ray still stood there looking at Jenner.

"Boys it's alright, I was selfish, Ray your pokenav will help you out in future I promise, and that Piplup I enhanced it so it would only follow you! Together with it....... You have to save Melia! If not..... Auuuugh!!!" These were Jenner's last words as he was swallowed up by the mini Rift and it instantly vanished.

"Noooooo!!!!!!" The boys cried out as their professor was taken, even Piplup and frokie were visibly saddened by the loss of there breeder.

"(As for the lot of you stay out of this, if you go after Melia....... only despair awaits you Ray, I can't you stop you, but I'll warn you don't do this again)" the voice said in a softer tone than before while addressing Ray.

"Like hell, I'll stop! Melia is my friend and I'll save her!" Ray yelled out with his remaining strength making even Ren shiver.

"(Come Gothitelle, there's nothing we can do now)" the voice vanished and so did the Goth Pokemon.

With all the tension gone nothing was supporting Ray's body as he was about to faint on the ground until.

"Whoops, got you buddy" Ren once again helps Ray onto his feet and helps him to the Pokemon center in the lab.

Lab district Pokemon center.  
Along with having his Pokemon healed the nurse of the center sprayed a blue fluid on Ray's side and put a large bandage there, the injury from the Gyarados was no longer affecting him, allowing him to tell Ren all that had transpired.

"Well this clears up a lot, we'll have to go to route 2 then, knowing Melia she'd head to Sheridan village a quiet place to hide from team Xen and the only way to get there is through amesthyst cave" Ren explains.

"Alright then! let's get Venam and...." Before he could finish Ren shoved two objects in his face, one was a purple and silver badge and the other was a brown and blue ticket with a lipstick mark on it.

"What are these?" Ray asked dumbly.

"You can't get to route 2 without the gym badge from the Venam's gym and you'll also need the Karrina pass to access the train to route 2, also you got beat up pretty bad so think of this as your training to get stronger" Ren explains in greater detail.

"Training Arc!!!, Okay bring it on, I'll get stronger, save Melia and continue my Pokemon journey!" Ray gets up from the hospital bed and yells.

"Shhhhh!!!" The nurse tries to silence him.

"By the way Venam's gym is north east of here, start by beating her in a gym battle" Ren says this and walks towards the door.

"What are you going do?" Ray asked curiously.

"I'll be surveying route 2 before the two of you get there" as he says this he leaves. (His as worried about Melia as much anyone else) Ray thought to himself.

East Gearan streets  
As Ray leaves the lab he sees multiple team Xen grunts being taken down by a group of people with instruments and a gang wearing black and brown jackets, at the center of the group was a girl with light purple hair, a black dress and white skirt, she marched with her huge boots shouting a crazy battle cry "Dogarssssss!".

This was no other than the gym leader of east Gearan Venam, as Ray wanted to say Hi to her a scream reached his ears "Minnnnnnn!", He turned around to see 2 team Xen grunts by the park trying to capture a light brown looking rodent.

"Come here little Minccino" The male grunt said.

"I sure hope Madelis doesn't find out we aren't looking for Melia, Wilbur" the female grunt says worried.

"Don't worry Hayley, as long as we catch this thing and turn it into a shadow Pokemon she'll even reward us!" Wilbur says with a greedy smile.

"Not on my watch team Xen!" Ray shouts as he intercepts them and throws his pokeball.

"Bellllll sprout!!!!" The lazy looking plant cried as Ray prepares to battle.

"You dare confront us!" Hayley shouts.

"You regret messing with the glorious team Xen!" Wilbur says as both he and Hayley join hands and form a giant X to intimidate Ray, which fails.

"Go bidoof!", "Go Mawile!". The duo send out a brown beaver like creature and a petite black and yellow creature with a giant mouth sticking out from the back of it's head.

"I don't have time for this! Vine whip Bellsprout!" Ray ordered.

"Bell!!!!!!" The usually lazy flytrap then whips it's arms around like a swaying rope and thanks to the grass terrain the attack was incredibly powerful knocking out both Xen Pokemon.

"So fast?!", "You haven't seen the last of us!!" The duo quickly get their Pokemon and run away from Ray.

'Sighhhhhh' Ray then checks on the rodent and finds it's collar saying it belongs to the Chrisola hotel and decides to return it there before challenging Venam.

Chrisola hotel  
The Minccino doesn't take long until it finds it's owner who thanks Ray profoundly.

Before he can leave he takes a wrong turn and ends up in the battle room of the hotel where a lone girl sees him and calls out to him shyly "Ex....cuse me".

She's light skinned and pretty, her long silver wavy hair held by a blue headband made her red pupils stand out even more, her clothing was that of a native with black feathery jeans and a white top.

"I heard........ a trainer was taking help quests...... in the city , did you.......happen upon mine "Please battle me" mmmmm" she asked shyly again.

Ray recalled himself taking that quest but was too busy with Melia to handle it so he just nods in response.

She opens up to him immediately he nods and says "Thank you so much for accepting my request, I'm a wandering trainer trying to find her place in the world, the name's Novae".

"My name's Ray, I'm an upcoming trainer so I hope I can keep you entertained with my battle style" the dark skinned boy smiles as he readies his pokeballs.

"I'm nothing special but hearing how pumped you are makes me pumped, I'll give my best" Novae says with Rosy cheeks.

The Battle commences and it's a four on four, they seem evenly matched until they send out their final Pokemon.

"Pip, let's go!" Ray sends out his starter. "Pippplupp!" The penguin stands on his toe's to look taller.

"Passimian we can win this!" Novae sends out a black and white monkey Pokemon with a green coconut shell as a helmet as well as holding another bigger coconut like a football "passssiii!" The monkey cries out.

"Rock smash let's go!" Novea orders and her monkey rushes at Piplup with it's coconut. 

"Dodge it then use Peck!" Ray counters, "pippp!" Piplup using hiss smaller body to his advantage dodges the attack and elongs his yellow beak to attack however.....

"Passss" Passimian moves out of the way and dodges as well.

"It won't be that easy! Another rock smash!" Novae orders again and the monkey charges.

"Switch to long range attacks bubble!" Ray says but Piplup is looking pissed as his elongated beak starts to foam with tiny blue bubbles around it.

"Pippppppppppppppppppppp!!!!" The blue penguin unleashes a highly concentrated beam of blue water bubbles that heavily damage the charging monkey and knock it out.

"Was that a new move?!!" Ray shouts in surprise as Piplup pops a smirk on his face.

"Ahhh, that was my first battle against a human, I usually just battle wild Pokemon, you've shown me a lot" Novae smiles as she returns her Pokemon to it's ball.

"No biggie" Ray blushes as he picks up Pip.

"I sure hope we can meet again, also don't forget to pick up your reward it's pretty special, bye for now!" She says this and leaves the hotel and so does Ray.

Help center  
Ray collects the reward which is 600 pokken and a rare Pokemon a Pichu which he keeps in his PC box for now until he can evolve it to a Pikachu.

East Gearan gym  
The building was a huge gray and purple factory with pipes everywhere, inside was surprisingly white and clean with purple lining on the wall symbolising that this was a poison type gym.

As Ray makes his way to the lobby he sees the contact panel Jan told him about and activates it.

"Yo Ray, so you've made it to the gym, so what do you want to know about? Venam's ace Pokemon?, her signature move?, Or a strategy against her?" A hologram of Jan appeared from the panel and addressed Ray.

"Just tell me everything, the more I know the better" Ray replies.

"Alright then her Ace Pokemon is Seviper the fang snake Pokemon it's a powerful poison type, watch out for it's glare attack and it's sword like tail.

Her signature move, you do know all gym leaders in Aevium have one? Well hers is called Venam's kiss, (Ray then thinks of something perverted making his face red). It can't poison your Pokemon so don't be too scared of it.

Next! The terrain is a corrosive field meaning all grounded non poison types will be damaged every step the take, so be careful.

Finally I advise you to use psychic type Pokemon like that Swoobat of yours" Jan says to Ray in a teacher like manner.

"Got it thanks Jan" Ray bows his head to the hologram.

"Hehehe alright then, good luck rookie" the holographic Jan says with a smile before vanishing.

As Ray continues into the gym he hears from the annoying girl Luca(the girl he met in the sewer) that he'll need to correctly mix a huge tank of different colored poisons to pass 3 rooms to finally reach Venam.  
After a series of mixtures and failures he finally made it.

Venam's room  
Corrosive field  
Ray enters a high balcony like room with the ground floor looking like a poison forest with purple leaves on decaying trees and a terrifying purple mist flowing around (was this the corrosive field he heard about).

"Yo Ray, those team Xen nitwicks were messing around with the town, you should have seen me, I took down 5 with a single blow!" A loud and rasty voice shouts at Ray from the other side of the balcony.

"Venam! Yah I saw a bit of it, you were amazing!" Ray says in admiration.

"Hehehe,wait don't try to butter me up, even though the stakes are high as the gym leader I can't go easy on you, so give it your all!" Venam yells again with vigour.

"Got it!" Ray shouts as well.

Luca comes from another door from the corner of the balcony room, ready to be the referee.

"Hey, it's your girl Luca! This gym battle will be a 2v2, with the weird challenger Ray vs the sensational Venam!!! Battle start" the yellow uniform wearing girl yells out with glee.

"Mareanie rock it!", "Swooo, don't mess this up!" The two then throw out their pokeballs.

Venam's Pokemon is a mareanie which was similar to a starfish standing on it's tentacles protect it's small purple body and a big yellow stinger on it's head.

Ray used his Pokedex to find out more,  
Mareanie the brutal star Pokemon a water and poison type these creatures are known to be merciless at times when they grab pray with tentacles and poison them with it's stinger.

"Okay new plan Swoo! Don't touch the ground, and keep your distance from Mareanie with gust!" Ray uses a strange tactic.

"If you plan to fight like that get ready for my counter! Mareanie spike cannon!" Venam commands

"Marrrrreaaaaniiii!" The starfish spins around shooting countless white spikes at the bat.

"Swoooooo!" Swoobat was unable to dodge any and was falling to the corrupted ground.

"No Swoo! use gust on the ground!" Ray recovered.

"Batttoooo!" The blue bat regained it's senses and stopped inches from the ground..... however.

"Chanceoooooo! Mareanie knock off!" Venam seeing an opportunity took it.

"Marrr reaaaa niiiii!" The starfish using 2 of it's tentacles slapped the bat twice and knocking it down to the ground and damaging it.

"Damnit Swoo! so this is the power of a gym leader! Don't let up! heart stamp let's go!" Ray once again commanded his Pokemon.

"Oh no, I won't let you get any momentum! Mareanie poison jab!" Venam yelled.

"Mareeeee!" The corrupted field gave the starfish more power to it's purple colored tackle however....

"Swoooooo battoo!" The pink clad bat was faster and thanks to the type advantage (psychic>poison) it overwhelmed the starfish and swept it up to sky.

"Mareanie counter with knock off!", "Maaaaa......" Venam tried to command her Pokemon but at that time it's body was flinching due to the bat's attack.

"Alright! Full assualt! Finish it with Confusion!" Ray orders.

"Swoooooo!", " Marrr!!!!!!!" Swoobat sends the starfish crashing to the ground with psychic waves ejected from it's eyes, knocking out it's fishy opponent.

" 'Sigh' Mareanie is unable to battle, the round goes to Ray!" Luca says after seeing Mareanie's swirling eyes.

"Alright, one more win and we get the badge! Keep it up Swoo" Ray shouts smiling.

"Swoo, swooo Swoo" the psychic bat breathes deeply, it suffered severe damage from the starfish and the terrain but it still kept itself afloat.

"Who the hell said you could push me like this! Well I'll have show you my full power then!!! Seviper!" Venam yells as she throws out her last Pokemon, the one Jan warned Ray about.

"Sevippppperrrr!" The giant black and purple snake hisses revealing it's long red fangs and tongue.

"Okay another heart stamp!" Ray commands.

"Wait for it..." Venam instructed making Ray curious of her strategy.

"Swoooooo!" Swoobat clad it's body in psychic energy and charged the serpent looking straight into it's eyes.

"Now Glare!" Venam yelled.

"Vipperrrr!" The snake shot two yellow beams of light directly into Swoobat's big eyes paralysing it, "battttooo!" The bat cried as it fell to the ground again and got damaged.

"Finish it with Night Slash!" Venam shouts again.

"dodge it Swoobat!" Ray cries.

"Sevipppp!" The snake uses it's sword like tail covered in dark energy to slash the paralyzed bat doing super effective damage (Dark>psychic) 

"Batttoooo!" Enduring the hit the bat managed to get back to the skies safely.

"Damn it, so it was a glare + night Slash combo, Swoobat aim for it's head one last time! Heart stamp!" The dark skinned boy orders

"Swoooooo!" In one last desperate attepmt Swoobat sends itself straight at the snake like a psychic missile.

"Eat This! My signature move Venam's kiss!" Venam shouts this and blows a kiss to Seviper.

"Seeeeeevvvv!" The snake unleashed a poisonous gas from it's mouth that takes the shape of it's trainer and engulfs the bat in a single go.

"Swoobat!!!" Ray screamed worrying about his Pokemon trapped in a heavy poison gas fog.

'bufffffff!' Swoobat was unconscious but it's body was still targeting Seviper with it's psychic powers after emerging from the gas cloud.

"Seviper dodge it now!" Venam shouts but it's too late.

"Vippppeeeee!" The snake cries in pain as it's forehead it hit and causes a small pink explosion.

The dust from the explosion clears revealing Seviper with a huge red bump on it's forehead but still standing, while Swoobat was motionless on the ground.

"Swoobat is unable to battle, the round goes to Venam, next point wins!" Luca annonces again.

"Hehehehe how do you like that!" Venam let's out a cheeky smile.

"Thanks Swoobat rest up" Ray returns his Pokemon, "You're amazing Venam, probably the strongest trainer I've fought so far, but.... I'll win this no matter what!" Ray resolves himself once again.

"Pip! It's you and me!" Ray sends out his starter.

"Pip.......luuuuu!" Piplup enters the field with joy only to feel pain as his feet touch the ground.

(With limited movement it's best that we wait for Venam's move and counter it) Ray thinks to himself.

(Their too far away for a Venam's kiss to be effective so i ought to attack from close range) "Seviper night Slash!" Venam commands.

"Pip grab it's tail!" Ray yelled.

"Pipp!" As the snake swings it's darkened blade tail, Piplup grabs the blunt side.

"Shake it off you!" Venam's says still remaining calm however.

"Serrr serr serr!" The snake swung it's  
Tail up and down but the penguin continue's to hang on, and due to Seviper's protection from the corrupted field Piplup is safe from damage as long as he holds on.

"Fine then, Glare at it!" Venam starts to get frustrated as he shouts another command.

Yet as the snake stares at Piplup, the penguins focus isn't on it's eyes but it's tail, "What the?!" Venam yells in confusion.

"I knew it! As long as you don't look directly into it's eyes you won't get paralyzed!" The dark skinned boy claps his hands together as he makes this discovery.

"That doesn't matter, you're in my range! Seviper use Venam's kiss!" Venam blows a kiss to her snake once again ordering it.

"Sevvvvvvvv!" The snake unleashes the venam shaped fog that embraces Piplup in it's poison.

"Cut through it Peck!" Ray shouts 

"Pipppp lupppp!" The brave bird elongates it's beak and flails around driving the poison fog away but still receiving damage! Bubbles then started to form around it's long beak.

"Now's our chance! Use Crunch!" Venam commands and her snake's fangs glow with black energy as it charges at Piplup.

"Behold the bond between Pip and I! Our sure kill new move! Bubbleeeeebeamm!!!" Ray strikes a pose like his pointing a gun at Seviper.

"Pip lupluplupppppp!" The penguin jumps backwards from the snake's tail and shots a blue beam of concentrated water bubbles too both he's and Ray's surprise the corrosive field turns the beam purple adding more power to it, engulfing Seviper's head and creating a purple explosion.

"No Seviper!!!" Venam screams but it's too late, the snake falls backwards fainted by the sheer force of Piplup's new attack.

"I don't believe it! This weirdo of a challenger actually won?..... I mean Seviper is unable to battle the winner is challenger Ray!" Luca quickly recovers from her confusion.

"Despite your flaws..... You're a pretty good trainer!" Venam Begrudgingly compliments Ray.

"Yoshaaaaa! We did it partner!", "Pippplup!" Ray and Piplup celebrate by highfiving even though the penguin doesn't have fingers.

"Damnit I honestly thought I had this one, but.... It's for the best, here it's the poison heart badge!" Venam speaks her mind and throws Ray the v shaped purple and silver badge.

"Yeah I just won.........the poison heart badge!", "piplupppp!" Ray poses with badge and so does Piplup (it's contagious).

"I called Karrina she'll be here later to give you her pass, then you meet Ren and I at route 2" venam informs him.

"Okay got.... " As Ray was about to finish the purple haired girl interrupts him.

"I have to ask.... Do you even care what's going here?" Venam asked and this question gets his full attention. 

"You just got here a few days ago you bearly know any of us, I'm not trying to be mean or anything it's just been bugging me" Venam continues her bangs now covering her eyes.

"You don't have to help if you don't want to...." Venam is cut off by Ray.

"But I want to. I want to save her, I want to help you guys, I want to do all these things, nobody's forcing, Melia..... Melia trusted me, a complete stranger.... I'll show her that her trust was in the right place! I'll save her for sure!!!" Ray declares his objective once again with Piplup standing next to looking just as determined.

Venam couldn't comprehend this guy's action, he just a newbie trainer yet, he had the guts to go this far for strangers, something within her chest flared up and she turned her face away from him.

"Do..... Do whatever you like" Venam immediately takes the back exit in the gym and leaves.

"What was that about?" Ray once again was confused by the action of this girl.

"Hey you! what crazy strategy was that?!! You better teach me!!" Luca tackles Ray to ground and Mounts him.

"What..... What?!" His confusion and his embarrassment fight for dominance as his face turns red and smoke comes from the top of his head.

Sometimes after the battle  
A shadowy figure appears in the same spot venam stood during the battle, the figure was definitely a woman's as the shape of the hips and chest gave it away not to talk about her long braided pigtails at her back.

Recalling the memories of what had taken place drew a strange smile across her dark skinned cheeks.

With that Arc 1 of rejuvenation has ended next time a short story before Arc 2 kicks it into high gear!


	8. Arc 2 Redemption Ray's test/ Tesla and Zumi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arc 2 begins

(Ray's test)- part 1

Gearan city gym  
After his battle with Venam, Ray met up with Karrina the gang leader of Gearan city outside of the gym.  
She was an orange haired girl about his age, her hair was tied into a single ponytail at the back.  
She wore brownish green dress that went down to half of her plump looking thighs, she also wore high heels Making her look taller than Ray even though they were the same height.

"Venam said I should come over and give you my pass to go to route 2 however.... I only give this to people I trust so if you want it! You'll have to join my gang" Karrina.

"Alright then, how do I do that?!" Ray said fuming out hype.

"Hehehe, come with me" Karrina says as she walks to the northwestern part of the city with Ray behind.

Junction bridge  
Crossing the old steel bridge the two saw a huge blue and sliver story building at the pier.   
It looked like an old laboratory with broken window all Around.

"I've heard rumors of a mad scientist being here performing cruel experiments on Pokemon, if you want to join my gang stopping that will be your test!" Karrina points at him with her pink painted nails.

"That's cool and all but you're sure this rumor is tru..." Ray asked before being interrupted by a horrible laugh.

"Huehuehuehuehuehue!" The laugh was so loud and crazy it gave both Ray and Karrina chills.

"You hear that! That's not the laugh of a sane person! Let's go!!!" Karrina shouts and drags Ray to the door.

'slamm!!!' the door is opened with force by the two startling the Occupants within.

Ray recognizes the two individuals he saw them when he first got to Gearan labs, the girl with green hair(but now she was wearing black for some reason) and the purple haired man in a lab coat Wearing glasses.

"The hell!, Jenkel I thought you said this place was safe?!" The girl shouted, her voice was a lot deeper than Ray expected (she looked young but sounded older).

"Well.... emm" the scientist known as Jenkel muttered.

"Whatever peace out!-----" the girl steps on a green floor panel and teleports to a different area.

As she leaves the duo's attention shifts towards a big pink tapir Pokemon that appears to be sleeping while hooked up to a huge green machine with flowers around the bottom.

"What's that machine?! What are you doing to that Pokemon?" Karrina questions Jenkel.

"Huehuehuehuehuehue! You've seen too much, I'll have to deal with this.... Well I did want to test out this thing" Jenkel's sight turns to the tapir Pokemon.

"Alright get ready Ray! This is your entrance exam, disarm him and save that Musharna(tapir Pokemon) " Karrina annonced.

"I've got this! (Melia just a little longer now)" Ray said as he readied Piplup's pokeball. 

"Huehuehue! We'll see about that! Musharna pulse evolution!" Jenkel shouts as he pushes a remote control.

"Mushraaaaaaa!" The tapir cries out in a strange way as pinkish green energy is flowing through it from the machine.  
The Pokemon transforms, it's body turns light pink as green flower petals cover it's back like wings.  
It starts to float like a balloon and from it's forehead a blue liquid like substance flows out like a never ending water hose, it's eyes also open up and give a blue glow.

"Pulse Musharna show them your power", "Muuuuuuuuuh" Jenkel says as the monsterous Musharna cries out.

"That..... similar to the Gyarad....." Ray remembers the beast he fought in the Rift not a pleasant memory however.

"Pip! Let's show this crazy guy how it's really done!", 'popppp!', "Pipluppp! "Ray sends out Piplup with a pop from his pokeball ready to fight.

"Mushrana use magical leaf", "Muuuuuuuuu!" Jenkel orders and pulse Pokemon sends out numerous flower petals at Piplup.

"Dodge it and get closer with Peck" Ray commands.

"Pi pi pi pip!" Piplup uses his beak like a dagger as he manages to dodge some petals and clear a straight path to mushrana.

"Pipluppp!", Mushrrrraa!" Piplup lands a solid hit on mushrana back making it scream and fall to the ground.

"Use psychic to defend yourself!" Jenkel yelled.

"Muuuusaas!" The pulse Pokemon uses the Blue energy stream on it's forehead to spin around making it look like a water wheel as it hits Piplup away.

"Piiiiii!" The penguin hit the ground hard but got back on his feet.

The trainers looked at each other and smiled "For a kid you aren't half bad", "For a crazy person you sure are composed" both Jenkel and Ray complimented the other.

"Both of them are weirdo 'tsk' " karrina hissed a comment as she continued to watch.

"let me give you a bit of info, by transforming Musharna into it's pulse form I added the fairy type as well so now it's a psychic and fairy type Pokemon, it's special attack is unmatched! Now Musharna use Mist!" Jenkel declared.

"muuuushraaaa!" The tapir released a pink mist that covered the entire laboratory in it's pinky haze.

(Mist? That's attack prevents loss of stats, I didn't know it's affects could be used like this, also is it similar to the corrosive field from before?) Ray thinks to himself.

"Now experience the true power of a fairy! Fairy wind!" Jenkel did a magical girl pose(like his holding a wand)

"Muuuu!" Musharna summoned multiple pink clouds from the mist that started to bombard Piplup.

"Pipppp!", "Oh no pip!" Ray cried out as his starter was hit endlessly by the powerful fairy attack amplified by the mist.

"How'd you like that boy! My ultimate technique, Misty Downpour a combination of mist and fairy wind" Jenkel declared with pride.

"That's a bloody cool name I've got to admit, however Pip and I aren't done (I've got a hunk about this mist)" Ray said to Jenkel still smiling.

"Muda Muda Muda!(useless) I'll show you that your puny starter can't match up to my beast of science! Musharna fairy wind full power!",  
"Musuuuuuu!" Jenkel shouted striking another magical girl pose, while the pulse Pokemon released another flurry of clouds at Piplup.

"We won't give up Pip use bubbleeeeebeamm!" Ray made a finger gun which he pointed at Musharna with.

"Pippp lupppp lupppp lupppp!" Piplup elongated his beak and fires a blue beam of concentrated bubbles however the Mist combined with the attack just like it did in the corrosive field turning the blue beam pink and adding extra power to it.

"Amazing" karrina was surprised by the action taken by Ray

The pink beam collided with the clouds clearing them like a bullet shot into water, before the tapir knew it the beam exploded in it's face knocking it out and it fell on top the pulse machine destroying it in the process 'boom'.

"No!!! Ruhhh ohh!....... She's gonna be really mad at me!" Jenkel yelled as he pulled at his purple hair, not only did his Pokemon lose but his machine was destroyed as well.

Ray looked at Piplup again he wasn't as damaged as he was in the fight against Gyarados "we've......... Gotten stronger" Ray tightened his fist and smiled, his training didn't go to waste "you we're amazing Pip good job", "pip lup!" Ray and his partner then smiled at each other.

The tapir Pokemon reverted back to it's normal form as it floated away from the destroyed machine, on it's face was the emotions of a scorned woman and it directed it's gaze towards karrina "Muuuushraaaa!!!!"

"Why is it pissed at me? Was it happy being attached to that machine?!" Karrina asked furiously.

"Of course! They shared a somewhat symbiotic relationship, it was never in any pain! It was like having a nice sensual massage huehuehuehue!" Jenkel laughed his ass off.

"Gross....." Ray comments as he sees the Musharna rub it's butt against a piece of the machine.

"So..... You aren't a mad scientist hurting Pokemon?" Karrina asked confused.

"I am a mad scientist but I'm not the kind that willingly hurts Pokemon that's stereotyping! But that's okay the battle has enlightened me, repairs will be done! Now would you two like drinks and potato chips?" Jenkel asked with a weird smile on his face.

"You sure are crazy but you're hospitality is in the right plac...." Ray was about to accept his offer before Karrina grabbed his black sweater scarf.

"No thanks we're good, let's go Ray" she says as he drags Ray out of the lab again.

Train station  
"Apart from all the weirdness, you passed the test with flying colors! Welcome to gang" Karrina gives him a blue ticket with a lipstick mark on it.

"Yah! I just got the Karrina pass!", Pipluppp!" The dark skinned boy and his penguin pose again weirding Karrina out some more.

"Now just to get on a train to route 2" Ray reminded himself.

"Good luck with saving Melia, she's my friend too I hope for the best outcome" Karrina tells him.

"Hmph leave it to me" Ray puts a fist to his chest as he says this with vigour.

"And when you have free time visit me at my house" Karrina smiles.

"Wh... what?!" Ray blushes as he thinks he misheard that line.

"Yah I have a mission that might peak your interest" Karrina finishes.

"oh hehehe" Ray rubs the back of his head awkwardly.

"Good luck again Ray" Karrina waves him good bye as he boards the train.

"See you later boss!" Ray jokes as he enters the train car.

She continues to wave until Ray is out of sight ready for his new adventure in Aevium

Ray's test- End

(Tesla and Zumi)- part 2

East Gearan library  
On the first floor of the library (E-room with lots of computers) was a woman with long straight orange hair she wore a blue jacket on top of a pink t shirt, her black skirt reached to her knees and he had black sneakers on well.

She was currently in the process of getting new data for a particular Pokedex, as she clicked some codes into the desktop in front of her.

'Creak' the door opens revealing a woman with fiery red hair wearing a red and white dress "Zumi just the woman I was looking for" the woman says smiling.

"Ah Tesla it's been a while" the computer lady now known as Zumi says also smiling.

"How have you been, I hope the city isn't giving you too much trouble" Tesla asked worried.

"Well we did have a Team Xen infestation but our gym leader and the local gang handled it" Zumi says playing with her orange hair.

"Team Xen again, first with the sinking of the S.S Oceana now this, I hope Ray wasn't involved" Tesla says on a low tone.

"Ray you say? I talked to a trainer named Ray recently as well, his getting some Data for me as we speak" Zumi remembers.

"That boy, his presence here is definitely a sign of something" Tesla puts a finger on her chin.

"Also you came here for your daughter's new laptop right?" Zumi brings out a red and yellow laptop from her bag.

"Oh yes sorry I got side tracked" Tesla apologizes and takes the laptop.

"This Ray kid must be something else, I thought he was just a normal trainer, didn't know he caught the attention of an elite 8 member" Zumi becomes curious and asks Tesla.

"Well he reminds me of a young man I met in my youth, his name was Keta" Tesla begins to tell her story.

(Flashback)  
Gearan city many years ago

Tesla was visibly different, her hair dark orange and tied into a ponytail while she wore a white and black dress, she was in her late teens and she was chasing after a boy of the same age.

"Slow down Keta! you're too fast!" Tesla yells(her voice was a lot squeaker then)

"We can't afford to miss the train to goldenwood forest pick up the pase Tesla! " The light skinned boy yelled back.

He had long black hair tied with a red rubber band then stayed at his back, he wore a black jacket and purple jeans, he was very athletic as his muscles were toned, his face was so fresh even though he was running at full speed.

The two reached the train station but the train had began to move.

"Oh no you don't, hold on Tesla" Keta grabs Tesla's waist and jumped on a bench from there he uses the height to jump on top of the train car.

"Wahhh! Honestly sometimes you come off as superhuman!" Tesla shouts with a red face.

"Shhh let's be quiet so they don't know we're stealing a ride hehehe" Keta laughs

"Still you must have gone through a lot of stuff in those Kanto islands" Tesla adds.

"Kehehe, the training there was easy, you should have my brother" Keta laughs again.

"Brother.... I'd like to know my family as well some day" Tesla says sadly.

"If you need help finding them just give me a call, since I'm your friend Ain't I? Kehehehe" Keta says smiling at Tesla making her blush

"Oh you!" Tesla pouts at him.

"Hey look, we're here!" Keta points at the golden scenery in front of them.

"No matter how many times I come here it's always beautiful" Tesla comments with a smile.

"I wonder how much leaves I can sell today!" Keta's eyes transform into P shapes (pokken money).

"Read the mood dummy!!!", "Kehehehe!" Tesla begins to punch his arm as he laughs.

(End of flashback)

"Wow he must have been your close friend" Zumi remarks.

"Yes we we're very close....... Seeing Ray brought back memories of Keta, I just hope Ray will always be able to keep smiling and laughing with his friends...." Tesla says in a sad tone.

Zumi refined from asking about Keta knowing that the answer she'll get wouldn't be a happy one.

With that done the main Arc 2 plot can continue tune in next time as Ray journey's to route 2!


	9. Nimble greetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray meets Nim

Route 2  
Much different to than the forest in goldenwood, all the trees in this route were Sakura trees(cherry blossoms), the ground was also pink thanks to the fallen leaves making the environment quiet romantic.

Ray stepped out of the train car as he shoved the rest of his sandwich into his mouth, the Oran berry sandwich was a gift from Venam's mother Chasity before he left east Gearan city.

"Yosh! Now to find that cav......" Ray was reciting before he got shoved away by someone.

"Hey you!" Ray yells at the careless person who bumped into to him.

It was a strange girl wearing a blue and purple shirt and a short skirt, under was dark purple trousers that reached her shins, and she wore flip flops.  
Her skin color was a bit lighter than his but was still a fine chocolate color, what really distinguished her was her bright blue eyes and two long braided pigtails on her dark purple hair.

She smiled and sticked out her tongue at him and said "Sorry kid, but you snooze, you lose! Gotta run!" Then ran off.

"What was that?" Ray asked confused as he checks his pockets and makes a discovery (My money!!!!) Ray shouts in his head, it seemed the girl had taken a hefty amount of pokken (money) from his wallet.

"Waittttt!!!!" Ray runs in the direction she went.

He meets her again but this time three huge boulders block his path on the route.

"Hehehe now ain't that a shame? Can't get passed here can you?" She laughs at him.

"Hmph time to show off something new, Rocky come out!", "Rufff rufffff!" The rock puppy shouts happily as Ray calls her out of her pokeball.

"Rocky use that new move you learnt Rock Tomb!" Ray orders.

"Rufffff!" The puppy jumps up, 3 huge rocks orbit her tail as she flings them at the boulders destroying them instantly 'braaaackkkk!'.

"When did you learn that?!!, mmm I mean that's not a problem!!! Catch me if you can kid!" The girl said like a kid having a tantrum and runs off into the tall grass.

"Are we playing tag or something!!!" He scratches his hair and runs into the tall grass after her.

He encounters several honeycomb shaped bees called Combee, he catches one and allows Rocky to handle the rest building battle experience for the young puppy.

Then a group of tourist are seen staring at a strange slim tree that sprouted inn the middle of the bridge connected over a stream.

"What's this doing here?" , "Aevium sure is strange", "could it be an imposter?" This was a handful of the comments around the tree.

Ray reached out to touch one of it's green leaves then suddenly..... "Cha Cha Cha! Chitty Chitty Chitty Chee Chee Cha Cha!" It's root come out from the bridge and it sprints to another location leaving everyone but Ray in awe (the hell is even going on anymore?) He thinks to himself as he continues.

As he crosses the bridge he sees a reporter and her camera getting footage of the biggest Sakura tree on the route, not only that they we're filming the purple monkeys with hands at the tip of their tails playing on the branches.

Ray becomes curious and opens his Pokedex.....  
Aipom  
The long tail Pokemon  
A normal type, they use their hand like appendage on the tips of their tails for everything making their real arms tiny and clumsy.

"Alright I'll just catch one quickly! Pokeball go!!!!" Ray flings a curve ball at one hitting it's cheek..

Stars appear from the ball alerting him of his capture. "Yah I just caught a ......." Before he could grab his pokeball the reporter grabbed his right hand.

"Cut, hey kid the name's Henrietta from the west Gearan news and this is my camera man Jeff" the dark skinned reporter woman said.

"Sup" Jeff said he wore a red cap and Blue T shirt, black shorts, his tanned skinned made him look like a Christmas light. 

I just saw that amazing capture of your, what do say about being on our new show Trainer Tracker!" She said with hopeful eyes.

"More publicity, hell yeah!" Ray agrees immediately

"Fantastic! Let's have a double battle then, Jeff! Make sure the camera is rolling this time!" Henrietta yells.

" 'sighhhhhh'sure thing boss... " Jeff makes sure the red light is on.

The battle begins and Ray uses his Evolved bat Swoo and the ever ready doggo Rocky while Henrietta and Jeff use a Whismur(tiny pink bear) and a Magnemite (flaoting iron ball with 2 magnets as hands and a screw on it's head).

Ray has the bright idea to try a combo move, "Rocky use rock tomb, Swoo use gust to accelerate the rocks" he explains.

"Rufffff rufffff!" Rocky obeys and shoots out 3 huge boulders at her opponents however... Swoobat

"Batoooo!" The pig bat didn't send out a normal tornado instead it shot 3 blades of wind that cut up and accelerated the pieces of the boulders like mini meteorites

'braaaakkkk!' the mini meteors attack the bear and iron ball ruthlessly and knock both out.

"What?!", "How unexpected......yah right (I suck)" both Henrietta and Jeff were surprised (sort of).

"That wasn't gust?! Was that air slash? No the blades weren't enough must be Air cutter....... Wait a sec I didn't get to name that sick combo move!!" Ray grimished after missing a chance to name a new move.

"That was amazing footage tho, hey kid's what's your name?" Henrietta asked while checking Jeff's camera.

"Ray da!" Ray pointed a thumb at his chest as he regained composure.

She put a hand on his shoulder and said to him "You're gonna go places, Ray. Alright let's get this footage back to HQ Jeff!!!" She yells and heads to the train station on the route.

"sure thing boss pffttt, see yah kid" Jeff replies nonchalantly.

Ray continues his search on the west side of route 2 passing by a giant green chameleon selling things, he finds the tree again by the side of a small cliff.

"Just a normal tree doing photosynthesis..... Photosynthesis!!!"

He pokes the the center of the tree with his index finger 'bop!'.

"Kyaa! Why are you bothering a tree?!  
You don't have any weird fetishes with trees right?" The tree cries.

"Hehehe! Get a load of this!" Ray goes into overdrive and gropes every part of the tree 'rub rub rub'.

"Goddamn it! I'm a goddamn tree for Christ's sake! Can you stop touching me!! BAH SCREW IT!!" The tree wiggles until it's form changes back to that of the thief girl red faced .

"Man you just don't give up! It's only P2000(pokken), you can make twice as much in a few days!" The girl yelled her cheeks still flushed.

"I don't want to hear that from you! Getting that money wasn't easy! Doing odd jobs isn't fun!!!" Ray yells back.

"Ugh whatever time to go again" 'clickk!' with a snap of her fingers the girl disappears leaving behind purple smoke that smelled like lavender perfume.

(That wasn't the work of a Pokemon or any device.... Was it magic?! Like that Karen lady's?) Ray wondered as he headed to the east in hopes of finding the strange girl.

The cave entrance had 3 vivilon stationed there like a guide, the girl was also there staring at them while Ray snuck behind her (I just have to get my cash back, then it's off to find Melia).

"All right! The final stretch girl! If you get through this cave you'll be home free!" The girl pumps herself up and gets hyped until.....

"Game over" Ray grabs her shoulder and says with a forced serious face.

"How'd you get here so fast?!!!" The girl shouts surprised.

"I'll you go to hell and back to get what's rightfully mine!" Ray poses covering his left eye with his hand.

"Hich... Hahahaha! You're a riot!" She laughs and bridges the gap between her and Ray, she grabs his hands and smiles, " The name's Nim okay? Don't forget it" she let's go and does her own cutesy pose.

Ray finally gets a clear look at her face, she's dangerously cute, her big blue eyes made him want to stare at her all day as he blushes.

"Also I didn't really steal your money, I just took it and placed it in a random pocket in your bag, it was just a funny little prank" she admits.

"It's actually here!" Ray shouts surprised as he checks his bag. "Well since that's settled, I've got no issues, my name is....." Before he could finish she put a finger in his lips.

"I already know it, Ray right?" Nim smiled.

"How?" Ray said once again surprised.

"I was hiding behind Venam during your battle, she's not very observant so didn't notice, I've seen her battle a few other trainers before but....." she paused for a bit and her cheeks got rosy "The way you battle just caught my eye that I knew I had to meet you myself" she was smiling profoundly at with with stars in her eyes.

"So instead of “a hello nice to meet you” you had us play tag?" Ray asked with a confused face.

"Exactly!!! Also I won't let you pass through this cave unless you battle me! Be warned I'm alot stronger than Venam!!" Num puffed up her chest in pride.

"Well I'll take this as more training then, let's go Rocky! Time to tussle in the forest!" Ray accepted as he called his rock puppy who was busy sniffing some grass.

"Oh we aren't battling here, we'll be going elsewhere!" Her body then levitates into the air shocking Ray.  
"Tee hee, your face is so adorable when you're surprised" she blushed and rubbed her cheeks while staring at him making him a bit uncomfortable.

A golden aura surrounds her body and her blue eyes turn gold as well.  
"HYRUUUUAHHHH!!!" The powerful voice echoes from her throat as both her and Ray vanished from the route making the other people there surprised.

Altered Dimension  
Ray opens his eyes to see the new location, they were huge blue rocks everywhere and the floor was purple and black, no vegetation anywhere just rocks.  
His stepping on a Pokemon field made with white chalk and on the other side of the field is Nim panting.

"Hmph hmph, Note to self, it takes.... Double the energy...... To bring more than one person...... here hmph hmph" she struggles to say as she wobbles her way up.

"What is this place Nim?, it's weird as heck" Ray asked as he looked around.

"I'm not entirely sure, I like to call it the Altered Dimension! In this place both me and Pokemon's psychic powers are much stronger than usual!" She poses again this time trying to show off her muscles.

"Hey ain't that cheating!!!" Ray points out to her.

"Shut up! You're going to be thrown into situations that aren't favourable, get used to it!" She hissed back. " Now Solrock, Lunatone, let's go it's a 4v4 double battle!" Nim tosses out 2 rock and psychic type Pokemon shaped like the sun and crescent moon respectively.

"Grrrrrr no problem, rocky go! Bellsprout wake up!!", "Bell ........", " Rufffff!!" Since the puppy was already out it showed her readiness to fight however as Ray sent out the plant it was asleep.

"Rocky bite!, Bellsprout Vine whip!" Ray commanded.

"Rufffff!" Rockruff attacked the sun shaped rock with blackened fangs however the field they were in deduced the power of dark attacks.

"What!" Ray was surprised as Rocky attack did almost nothing.

"Hehehehehe the field is weird ain't it?! Solrock psywave!" Nim commanded and the silent rock shoved away the puppy with a wave of purple energy.

"Roooccc!"rocky fell to the ground hard and bellsprout rush towards Solrock, "Bellsprout bellll!!" Will a swiped of it's elongated leaf arm the whip hit the center of the sun rock causing a critical hit alongside the super effective grass move.

"........." Solrock silently fell to the ground being knocked out by the plant.

"Bell........zzzzz" the plant once again dozed off angering Ray "Wake up! Behind you!!!" He pleaded however.

"Lunatone it's sleeping use psybeam now!" Nim took the opportunity to attack "......." The silent moon rock shot a beam of psychic energy knocking out the sleeping plant with a super effective move(psychic>poison)+ terrain power up.

The two trainers returned their Pokemon and sent out the other.  
"Leo you're up!" , "Knock em dead Inkay".  
Ray sent out his trusted lion Cub Litleo while Nim brought a floating gray squid like Pokemon(also a psychic type).

"Inkay smokescreen!" Nim yelled.  
"Kayyyy!" The squid released a fog of black smoke from it's pink lips concealing itself.

"Fine then Rocky use rock tomb on Lunatone!" Ray ordered his puppy to attack the visible target. "Rufffff rufffff!" Rockruff fired 3 huge boulders at the Moon rock however.

"Lunatone protect yourself with cosmic power!" Nim raised her fist to the sky and in an instant a black shield with white stars blocked the stones aimed at Lunatone 'braaaackkkk' the stones shattered on impact leaving behind a ton of dust.

(Lunatone just increased it's defence and special defence, I'll have to go after Inkay then) Ray thought to himself as he gave hand signals to Leo that hid inside the dust.

"Inkay use wrap on that dog, we'll stop his movements!"Nim ordered hoping to crippled Ray's attacker however....

As soon as the squid floated out of the smoke, Leo charged at it with his fangs.

(What another Bite attack? So disappointing Ray, don't you learn....) Nim thought to herself before realizing..

Leo's mouth was on fire and with that he bit down on the squid hard 'blammmmm!' "inkayyyy!" The squid was hit hard and sent to left side of field it's left side was charred.

As if that wasn't enough Rocky charged at it landed a punch with her paw 'slammm', the squid was down and out.

Nim returned her Pokemon and started to laugh "Hyahhahahhah! Ray you got me there, I really didn't think you thought that Cub any fire attacks" Nim wiped a tear from her eye.

"Yah, I've been training both Leo and Rocky behind the scenes, even tho they ain't my main starters they are important to my team!" Ray declared.

"Leooo lit!!!!", "Rufffff rufffff!" Both of his Pokemon appreciated the gesture they didn't want to fail him either.

"However I was only using 1% percentage of my power!!! Get ready for my full strength Hyahahhah" Nim likes through her teeth and laughs it off.

"Espurr let's go" Nim sent out her last free Pokemon a gray purple psychic kitten with closed ears. "Ess purr!" The cat replied with determined eyes.

The cat got on top of moon shaped rock and started glowing bluish pink.

(What's she planning now)"guys stay on your toes!" Ray advised his Pokemon.

"Espurr psyshock!, Lunatone rock slide!" Nim happily commanded.

5 powered up psychic laser beams shot out from espurr's surrounding while multiple rocks were created and sent in the same direction by Lunatone.

'swissssuhhh!' the attacks flowed together like entangled snakes forming a psychic rock beam.

Leo could feel the power of the attack through his fur, knowing at 1 least of them had to Stay in the battle he did a courageous thing....

"Leooo!", "Roccc!!!" Litleo head-butted Rockruff out of the way taking the full blast of the opponent's attack 'blammmmm!'.

Dust settles, revealing a charred Litleo with a few stones and dirt on his back, knocked out.

Ray and Rocky had horrified faces on, Rocky didn't take to likely to it.

"Return... Sorry Leo, if I had thought of something sooner..... Pip avenge Leo!" Ray returns the fallen and sends out his starter the water penguin.

"Pippplup....." Pip arrives full of energy but something feels off to him.

"Grrrrrrooo!" Rockruff's eyes are no longer blue instead a deep crimson, her fur is standing up and her fangs are out.

"Looks like your Rockruff is fuelled up with rage" Nim noticed.

(Better finish this quick then, I'm not a fan of having a pissed off Pokemon) "Rocky use...." Before Ray could finish the dog had already charged at her opponents.

"Lunatone attack with rock slide" Nim strategized. The moon rock sends dozens of huge rocks at it's opponents.

"Ruff ruff ruff!" Rockruff didn't wait for Ray's command, she headed straight into the rocks destroying them yet sustaining damage.   
"Damnit Rocky!, Pip bubblebeam use it to separate the two when they are distracted.

"Piplupluplup!" Piplup sent out a blast of concentrated bubbles at Lunatone and espurr. "Essssp!" The cat cried as it was forced off the moon rock.

"Rufffff!" Wasting no time Rocky attacks her pray with a devastating headbutt cracking the shell of the moon shaped rock 'craccck!'.

"Lunatone you fought well" not wanting the rock monster to sustain anymore damage "Espurr finish this with psyshock!" She yelled in frustration.

"let her have it Pip!" Ray also allows his starter to do what he does best.

"Es purrrrr!" The purplish cat sends out 5 purple laser beams from it's back all hitting Piplup hard however...

"Piiiiiiiii!" The penguin glows white as his hit and keeps moving closer to espurr.

"Luuuuuuu!!!" Suddenly a wave of white energy is expelled from his body washing over espurr "purrrrr!" The cat is overwhelmed and knocked out.

"Another new move? That looked like bide!" Nim says surprised she didn't expect him to grow this much in such a short time.

"You guy's were amazing, Pip and rock...." Ray was congratulating his team until he saw Rockruff's face.

"Grrrrrr!" The puppy growled at her master, her expression was pure anger, her eyes were still crimson and her fangs were out.

"What's wrong with you? Chill out in your pokeball for the time being okay" Ray returns her to the ball and looks at it with a sad face.

"Your power inspires me!, But darn you're too strong for me! I knew you were strong but you keep getting stronger I really thought I had a chance!!" Nim softly pulls her braids in frustration.

"Well you really gave me a run for my money (literally) thanks to this field increasing your psychic powers" Ray added.

"Speaking of psychic powers, here" she hands him a silver spoon that's been twisted like a screw.  
"That's a twisted spoon i made it myself! It boosts psychic attacks like this field, keep it close, it'll be like I'm always by your side..... always" she says smiling creepily.

"I know that was creepy but I've already crossed that line long ago" she says rubbing her head.

"I'm also not a perfect depiction of normal, that just means the two of us are unique" Ray gives her a thumbs up and smiles accepting her creepy side.

She smiles deeply and holds her red cheeks "Let's go now you are a busy guy after all" she takes a deep breath  
"HYRUUUUAHHHH!!!" In a bright flash of golden light Ray returns to route 2.

In front of the cave he looks on and takes a step inside, "I'm coming Melia"  
He says with a face of pure determination.

"You better save her Ray....." Nim's voice echoes in his mind as he continues further.

What's wrong with Rocky?, What's Melia's current condition?  
To be continued!!!


	10. Web of despair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Melia.....

Amethyst cave  
"Geo dude Geo dude Geo dude, proobo, carrrrr binkkkuuu!" Different rock type Pokemon fused together to form a rock wall in front of the young teen Ray in his pursuit of Melia.

"I'm sooo done with obstacles! Bellsprout Vine whip!" Ray sends out his lazy ass plant from it's ball.

"Bellllll! Sproutoooo!" The yellow headed plant stretches it's long leaf arms like whips and in mear seconds the stone wall of Pokemon are broken down and left unconscious.

"Good work you sleepy fly trap, I'll catch a few of these for Zumi's update" Ray congratulates his plant as he gets ready to catch some rocks then....

"Belllll..........!" The plants legs disappear leaving only it's head behind and in a green flash of light it's head grows to the size of Ray's knee and it's long arms move to the ear position, finally a single brown branch pops up from it's head.

"Weeeepppp........zzzzzz" before it could even finish it's cry it fell asleep.

"Pfft even your evolution is lazy, alright Pokedex lay it on me" Ray comments as he opens up his silver Pokedex.

Weepinbell  
The flycatcher Pokemon and the evolved form of bellsprout,  
A grass and poison type  
This Pokemon hangs on to trees with it's rear branch and falls asleep sometimes if it moves around in it's sleep it finds pray on the floor.

The masculine voice tells Ray.  
"Such a lazy Dex entry as well 'sigh' what am I going to do with you?" Ray returns the plant to it's ball to continue sleeping while he catches the rocks.

5 minutes later  
Deeper into the cave Ray sees it's getting darker and the only thing lighting the way are pinkish crystals scattered all over the place however, on the part of the cave he stepped in was brighten up by the cave.

"Is this place alive or something?" Ray asked himself as he moved forward.

"Hey it looks like Ray finally got here!" A familiar voice reaches his ears, it's Ren Ray's rival and Venam his off and on again friend near a mine cart on the rails.

Ren is smiling at him, his wearing his normal gray jacket and dark trousers, his dark red scarf hangs on his neck like a Ninja's his black hair swaying to the left.

While Venam's expression right now didn't fit her punk rock black, red and white appearance, her purple hair curling up like a torch.

"Hehehe I had some psychic issues to take care off(making reference to Dr Jenkel and Nim from previous chapters)" Ray rubs his head as he joins them near the railing.

"Heh... I see you've made choice" Venam says dryly to Ray.

"Yah I have" Ray's expression becomes more serious alerting Ren of the change in atmosphere.

"Am I missing something here?" Ren asked confused.

"Nevermind, now which way do we go?" Venam ignored his question and moved on.

"Well the exit is north which heads to Sheridan village,so it's possible she went there" Ren concludes his reasoning.

"Okay then, let go!" Venam leads the charge north as the trio, walk on top the narrow railway.

By the end of track, they encounter something strange a hooded man stood in front on them, but the crystal have no light around him, what could that mean they thought.

The pale skinned man wore a purple cloak that covered his eyes, he wore a dark purple shirt with gray linings and his slacks were black.

"Who are you?!" venam was the first to asked in a threatening manner.

"She didn't go this way" the man says in a deep voice startling everyone.

"How would you know?!" Ray grows hostile towards the figure, something about the man didn't feel natural at all.

"Start answering our questions bub! Who are you?!" Ren backed up his friends by pulling out his pokeball.

"You haven't experienced true fear before have you?" The man released a nasty Aura that kept the gang on their toes.  
"Fear makes people take terrible decisions, in this cave a young girl alone in the dark would take a wrong turn, remember fear blinds the mind, cripples the intellect" the man explained.

"Melia's smarter than that, no way she took the wrong turn!" Ray swiftly moved his hand with a slashing movement.

"Ren, what do we do? Should we trust him?" Venam asked the most rational person in the group.

"Consider this, if she went north,then she's safe remember Sheridan village has a powerful gym leader" Ren explains.

"Oh yah that Sensei guy!" Venam smiles as she remembers the gym who bested her once in a battle long ago.

"So if she went north she has someone to protect her now but.... If she went east she'd be cornered by team Xen" Ren continued, both Ray and Venam seemed worried with that theory.

"So you want us to trust?!" Ray asked agitated.

"It's for the best results" Ren answered calmly.

"Smart boy, listen to him brats, his got the mind of a leader" the cloaked man complimented Ren making his head grow bigger.

"Yeah yeah whatever let's go!" Venam pused Ren north while he was still high on the compliment however...

Ray didn't budge, he looked the stranger right in his purple glowing eyes "Best be going now" the man hissed.

Without a word Ray turned and went east, (that man........), Ray felt something suspicious about him but this wasn't the time.

10 minutes later  
The trio continued east, venam had taken and early lead while Ren and Ray were still behind her until

"Huh a joltik?" Ren says confused as he sees a yellow four legged insect on top of a crystal.

Ren picks up the small spider like Pokemon in his hand, "these weren't here before... Something's off" Ren noted.

"Oiiii ! Guys!!! I found something!!" Venam shouts from all the way ahead.

Both of them rush towards the sound, there they see Venam had tied up a male team Xen grunt wearing a black and red military uniform.

"This punk says Melia was last seen in the lower Chambers meaning we have to go deeper into this bloody cave!"Venam hissed as she kick the grunt in the stomach and moved deeper into the cave with Ren and Ray still behind.

Lower Chambers  
Even though this place was deeper underground, the crystal were more making it bright, Ray encounters a moon shaped Pokemon (Lunatone) one he had fought before, get offers it some treats and it joins his Pokemon team.

After that the trio encounter a cavern with Crystal lake broken and shaped like Xs, in the middle of that cavern was a familiar face.

"Zetta! You bastard!" Ray shouts and runs towards him.

Zetta the blonde Xen admin stared daggers at Ray. 

"You.... Your that trainer that was with Melia....... Ray right? You've caused a lot of damage dumbass!" Zetta insults Ray in a cruel tone.

Ren holds Ray back as he and Venam step forward.  
"The one who caused damage was you! Not Ray" Ren defends his friends.

"Who are you anyway? Are you the Xen boss?!" Venam asked.

"The boss? Heheheheh, I'm far from that,very far" Zetta laughs.

"Then stop wasting our time! Where's Melia?!" Venam yells.

"Oh Melia.........." Zetta paused

"She's dead"

Those words stabbed at everyone present the shock on their faces were unexplainable.

"Don't screw with me, the hell are you saying?!!!" Ray could no longer keep his cool.

"what are getting at?!" Venam added her own fury.

"This isn't the time for jokes!" Ren yelled as well.

"Pfft, I ain't joking, take a look at this" zetta tosses them a torn red bag that had bite marks on it.

"That's........" Ren struggled

"Melia's bag" venam finished.

"Guys it can't be right?! It's a trick!" Ray yelled again.

"It has to be!" Venam added.

"There's no mistake, everything's ruined, eaten by a dumb spider! All this cause an idiot tried to play hero!"  
Zetta points at Ray.

Ray's body couldn't take it anymore, he fell to his knees, the two pokeballs in his left pockets l, fell out 'pooop!' Piplup and Rockruff were released from their balls.

"We needed her for so many things! But now because of you Ray! Cause of your nonsensical meddling!!" Zetta continued to abuse the boy.

"My.....Fault?" Ray's voice came out softly he didn't know what to think anymore until....

"Don't you dare try to blame Ray for this!....... If team Xen didn't attack her none of this would have happened!!" Venam defended Ray with all her heart.

"Even though we're her so called best friends.... We couldn't do a thing for her, yet Ray a stranger had to bear that burden alone! So don't you dare blame him!.

"Guys..... " Ray's eyes light up again.

Zetta lifts his hand up and behind him on the cave wall, a yellow dimensional rift opens up behind him.

"Not this again!" Ray remembers the time he was sucked into one, a horrible memory while Ren and Venam just look confused.

"Heheheheh! You guys might be clueless about this but Ray sure ain't, that terrified looking on his face is classic!" Zetta laughs  
"The dimensional rift is back baby! And it's yellow this time! With it I'll obliterate the lot of ya! You shall know team Xen's pain!" From both hands Zetta unleashed his Pokemon.

"Rawrrrrrrrrr!", "Gloooooo!" The beast with a rusted helmet returned Type null, while gloom a new member was introduced,it was a blue bipedal plant with a giant yellow flower on top of it's head.

Ray tries to stand up Ren puts a hand on his shoulder "And you shall know the pain you put Melia through!Frogadier!" Ren sends out a frog like Pokemon.  
The evolved form of Frokie, Frogadier it's appearance is different now it's body is now dark blue with lighter blue strips it has a scarf of white bubbles around it's neck making it more ninja like.

(When did he evolve his starter, while Pip....) Ray thought about his own shortcomings while looking at Ray's starter.

"I'm ready to unleash hell!" Venam sends out her strongest Pokemon Seviper the black viper like Pokemon.

The battle begins with no side backing down.

"Type null crush claw!" Zetta shouts 

"Rawrrrrrrrrr!"the dark beast lunges at the frog.

"Use smokescreen Frogadier!" Ren orders

"frogaaaaaa!" The frog let's out a fog of dark smoke from it's mouth concealing itself.

"Raaaa?" The beast lands on the cloud of smoke but the frog is nowhere to be seen until...

"You've got to be kidding me!" Zetta yells in front of his Pokemon, are about 20 clones of Frogadier.

"Bear witness to my combo of concealment! Smokescreen+double team! Shadow clone attack!" Ren shouts out as all the clones attack type null.

"Damn it, Gloom, use petal dance" seeing as he can't do anything for type null, he shifts his attention to his plant.

"Gloooglooooglooom!" The plant being spins around in a circle send out pink petals to attack Seviper as it also defends itself in a petal tornado.

"Seviper hang on!" , "Viperrrr!" Venam struggles with this strategy as she looks for an opening while Seviper is pelted with petal bullets.

(There has to be an opening but where) venam thinks as she observes the target.  
(There it's feet!)"Seviper use night Slash on it's feet" Venam commands as she notices the concentration of petals are avoiding the foot area.

"Viperrrr!", "Oommm!" The snake uses it's sword like tail to whip the right foot of the plant making it trip and stop it's petal tornado.

Observing all of this while still on the floor was Ray who started in awe(those guys, there amazing, while...... I'm still we...) Before he could finish a sharp pain emerged from his right hand "Ouch!!" He screams.

"Grrrrrr!" The rock puppy growled at her owner, as if he could understand, her crimson eyes shouted the word Coward.

"Pipp!", "Rooo!" Piplup as the oldest of Ray's Pokemon, slapped the puppy away with his flipper making her angry

"Rufffff!" With a final shout the puppy took a 180° turn and ran towards the darkness of the cave.

"Rocky! Rocky!!" Ray cries out for his Pokemon but she's long gone leaving Ray and Piplup behind.

The battle reaches it's climax.

"Frogadier double team again!" Ren orders "frooogadierrrr!" The ninja frog holds it's hands together as 5 clones appear from it's shadow and rush towards it's opponent.

"I won't let you! Hyper beam!" Zetta yells "Rawrrrrrrrr!" Type null unleashes a beam of yellow energy from it's masked mouth blasting a majority of Frogadier's clones however.

'grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!' the frog is seen grinding a blue ball of water against the beam as it runs making it stronger

"Impossible!" Zetta yells in utter shock.

"Take this! Water pulse!" Ren shoves his right hand forward like his throwing a punch.

His frog follows that movement and implants the water sphere in type null's chest "Frooogadierrrr!!", "RAAAAAAAA!" the beast cries as it's sent flying in a spiral motion and knocked out against the cave wall.

"Damnit return type null!, Gloom sludge bomb!" Zetta orders his last Pokemon to attack.  
"Gloooooo!" The plant launches 3 brown poison mud balls at Seviper.

"Overwhelm him with Venam's kiss!" Venam blows a kiss to her sanke and it goes to work "Sevvvvipeerrrr!"the snake spewed out a Venam shaped poison fog that engulfs the mud balls as well as Gloom knocking it out.

"Tsk! It looks like I lost again! This time a ninja wannabe and a punk gym leader!" Zetta yelled in frustration as he returned his Pokemon.

"Now give up and turn yourself in!" Ren shouts.

"Hell no! Time for plan B, ohhh rifty!!!" Zetta mocks them by speaking in a girlish way.

Suddenly the yellow rift begins to suck in dust and rocks as well as Ray's party.

The 3 kids start running away from the Rift but they are forcefully drawn towards it like a magnet

"What's happening, this thing is too strong!" Ren cries.

"I can't fight it, it's like running through pudding!" Venam remarks as she tries to run

"Goddamn it! Here we go again!" Ray already knows this was inescapable as he and his friends are sucked in 'zipppppp!'.

Rift Lethal Forest  
Ray opens his eyes again expecting the hellish world of rift dragon gate, instead he awakes to a different setting. 

The trees are purple, and the lake water is pink, the grass is also dark red, the air seems spicy but is still breathable.

He looks around and sees his comrades Ren and Venam looking around as well.

"Hey what is this funky place Ren?" Venam asked curiously.

"The Rift most likely, another dimension" Ren puts a hand on his chin and looks around.

"Well this place looks cool it's right up my alley,... Hey look at the water! I'm going get some for my gym" Venam absentmindedly gets closer to the river and extends her hand.

"Don't touch that it might be corrosive!" Ren points out.

"Geh! Good point...." Venam recollects herself and steps back.

"Well let's just look for a way out, before a giant serpent appears or something" Ray cautions his friends.

While looking around Ren finds a joltik like before in the cave however....

"Hey guys come check this joltik it's black and purple instead of yellow and blue" Ren says pointing at is.

"Is it a shiny?" Venam asked.

"Nah, my Pokedex says the shiny color is green" Ray confirms.

"Then what's this little....", 'zisususus' Ren touches the spider like creature and it turns into blue ash.

"You killed it?!"venam screams.

"I just touched!!!" Ren defends himself.

"Let's keep looking, avoid touching those things with your bare hands" Ray speaks out.

""Hai hai"" both Venam and Ren say in unison as the continue looking.

Ray finds 6 more joltik around the forest and they gathers near a big purple egg, then suddenly 'beep' 'beep'.

Ray's Cybernav alerts him of something so he opens up the silver tablet like device  
"Finished Rift data download  
Location- Lethal Forest  
Inhabitant- Code Materna: Galvantula  
Ability- Parental bond, avoid destroying it's young or suffer it's Wrath" the same masculine voice from his Pokedex says.

"What's this saying anyway?" Ray ponders what his Cybernav is saying while Ren and Venam discuss.

"Hey why do you think all the joltik gathered around this egg?" Ren asked the punk girl.

"I mean they are near an egg so that must mean... you know...." Venam winks at Ren.

"Uhh! Hell no?!" Ren says disgusted.

"I meant as in to watch it hatch! You sicko!" Venam's face turns pinks.

"Oh my bad hehehehehe" Ren tries to laugh away his embarrassment.

"Um guys.... It's hatching!!!" Ray rejoins the conversation and points at the crack in the egg

'Crackkk' "Galllluuuu" a large part of the top shell falls off revealing a large purple and pink scorpion tail.  
Everyone starts to freak out as the joltik spider things start circling the cracking egg.

"That's a tail, a tail!" Venam freaks.

"I've never encountered something like this?! What do we do?!" Ren shouts in confusion.

"let's calm down first! It might be a friendly Rift monster" Ray tries to calm them down until...

"Garrrrrrrr!" The creature breaks free from the shell in an explosion of dark energy.  
The horrific creature body was purple with hazy fuzz on it, it's 3 conjoined head looked awkward with 3 eyes each.  
A long sharp leg came from the chin of each head making 3 in total. But what made it stand out more was it's long pink and purple scorpion tail oozing out venom.

As it caught sight of trio it's first action was "Gaaaaalllllrruuuu!" The beast shots out numerous needle shaped beams of poison energy at the group 'shshshshhssh' like rain drops, creating a purple dust cloud.

"Sevipppp!" The cloud clears revealing a serpent coiled around the group like a shield however...

"Goddamn it! Why always me?!!! The poison! The poison!" Noticing a long purple Needle in his shoulder Ray falls to the ground in pain.

"Here eat this" venam tosses him a pink pecha berry, "I'm a poison type expert you won't die from a single needle" Venam eaters battle position.

"Oh" Ray pops the berry in his mouth and instantly feels better.

"Stand up Ray!, We'll need all of us for this, Growlithe come out" Ren remarks as he sends out an orange and black puppy like Pokemon.

"Sure thing boss! Swoo let's go!", "Swoooooo!" The pig bat emerges from Ray's ball to fight.

"Swoo air cutter!"  
"Growlithe flamethrower!"  
"Seviper night Slash!"  
The trainers yelled together and their Pokemon attacked.

Swoobat shot out 3 wind blades, Growlithe roar out a torrent of flames from it's mouth, while Seviper used it's sword tail slash at the enemy however....

"Jolll,tikkk,lii!" Numerous cries from the joltik Ray gathered cried out as every single one shielded the giant beast From the attacks and turned to ash.

"Galllluuuu!!!!!" The beast cried in fury as it started moving it's tail around like a whip with dark aura oozing from it's body.

"Valcuuuuu!", "Viperrrr!!!" The insect slammed it's tail into Seviper cracking the very earth it was on 'bammm!'.

"Seviper!" Venam cried out as her powerhouse was knocked out in a single hit.

"What the hell was that?! Swoo look out!" Ray turned his attention away for a second and that would cost him

The best shot out a purple electric web from it's tail entangling Swoobat, "Swoooooo, baaaa baaa baaaa!" The bat cried in pain as it fell to ground and struggled until.

"........." The electricity in the web had paralyzed the bat and immobilized it.

"Damnit return Swoo" Ray quickly retracted his Pokemon before further damage occurred.

"Growlithe use flame....." Before anything happens, Growlithe is on the floor covered in purple needles.

"Did it just get a major stat boost?! There's no way it's supposed to this strong" Ren makes mentioned as he returns his fire puppy.

"Avoid destroying it's young or suffer it's Wrath? So that's what it meant am so stupid!!" Ray yells at himself.  
"All those joltik we killed were it's kids and killing them just made this Galvantula a lot stronger!" Ray explains.

" 'Sighhhh' Alright then, I've got a plan first we try to reduce it's stats and hinder it's performance then..." Ren explains until.

"Then we kick it's ass with our strongest attacks!" Venam finishes his sentence.

"Got it! I can do that do Leo I need you!" Ray releases his lion Cub from his pokeball " litlit leooo!" The cub roars in anticipation.

"Sableye I choose you!" Ren sends out a dark purple imp looking ghost Pokemon.

"Golbat your up!" Venam also sends out a purple bat with a large mouth.

"Dodge it's attacks and use Noble roar!" Ray yells as Litleo runs and dodges the spiders tail whip attacks.

"Leooooooo!" A powerful roar cries out from the Cubs throat lowering the attack and special attack of the spider.

"Now's our turn, burn that thing with will o wisp, sableye!" Ren orders.  
"Sabblleeeyyyeee!" Jumping from shadow to shadow the imp shoots out a blue flame from it's right hand inflicting a burn status on Galvantula further reducing it's attack Stat.

"Finally to end it off, confuse ray Golbat!" Venam gives the order and Golbat... "Golllllll!" The bat shoots out a black Ray of light confusing the beast further.

"Galllllllguuuuuugaaaaavallllllllll!" The spider in it's confusing jumps a horrific height and crashes on the floor  
'slammm!!!' the ground explodes causing numerous rocks to fly out damaging everyone present.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!,gyahhhhhhh!, kyahhhhh!" The kids are battered by Stones but they shield their eyes and other important parts however....

All 3 Pokemon sent out were exposed to the stone attack up close and fainted instantly.

Suddenly Galvantula stood up it's middle head covered in pink blood, with 3 eyes of rage pointed at the gang  
"Galllllll"! The beast cried showing it's out of confusion.

"I've got only one more left" Venam hisses as she sends out the bag of garbage she caught {chapter 2 reference}

"Me too, and his pretty weakened from the battle with Zetta" Ren releases a panting Frogadier from his ball.

"Piplup it's all on you,(Rocky is MIA, and Weepinbell is weak to this bug)" Ray sends out his starter.

"Venam we've got to pull off a combo move! It's our only chance to end this in one blow" Ren states.

"Why not all 3 of us try one?" Ray asked

"A 3 person combo move isn't a good idea for this dire situation! Any mistake right now can cost us our lives!" Ren debunkes Ray "Just attack after we do!" He says to Ray who just nods his head.

"Got it trubbish use poison spikes!" Venam orders  
"Truuuuuubbbb!" The garbage monster shoots out 3 purple stars at Frogadier.

"Frogadier mix it with water pulse!" Ren yells.  
"Frogadier!!!" The ninja frog creates a wall ball that fuses with the poison stars turning it purple.

"Combo move: poison water spear!" Venam and Ren say in unison as the attack takes the shape of a spear head and launches towards Galvantula however....

"Pipluppppp!" From out of nowhere the penguin jumps in front of the combo attack taking the full impact 'booom!'.

"Pip what the hell are you doing?!!!" Ray yells at his Pokemon as Ren and Venam have confused faces on.

"Pippppppppppppppppppppp!" Piplup then faces Galvantula straight in the face and releases a white explosion "shiiiiiiiiiiiiii!'.

"Bide?! He used bide without my command!" Ray braced himself as he was also caught in the explosion along Side his friends.

Piplup knew the attack wouldn't have worked so he took matters into his own hands by multiplying it with bide at the cost of his own health (I have to do this! I'll save us all!) The thought ran through the penguin as he exploded.

"Galllllllllllllllll!" The beast cries but nothing can be done to save it.  
(Rest forever Galvantula) a feminine voice reaches it's ears as it closes all 9 of it's eyes and accepts fate....

Galvantula is destroyed along with the Lethal Forest.

Amesthyst cave   
Lower Chambers  
'Boommmmm!' the Rift explodes sending out Ray, venam and Ren before collapsing in on itself.

"Impossible! How did you survive, not once but twice! My rifts are unbeatable!"

"Shut up Zetta! Just give up already!" Ray yells holding the almost lifeless body of his starter Pokemon. 

"No you Shut up!, I don't know what trick you 3 used but you aren't leaving here alive!!!" Zetta snaps as he tries to pull a metallic object from his right coat pocket.

"That's enough Zetta, stop talking" all of a sudden an angered female voice echoes through the cave.

"That voice? The woman from gearan labs" Ray and ren takes notice of this.

"Who the hell are you?!" Zetta cries in confusion.

Suddenly in front of him a beautiful woman appears...  
She has long black hair that covers are left eye which is an intimidating crimson color, she seems to be wearing light make up as well as a purple flower ornament in her hair.  
Her clothes are that of a classic Lolita with black frills all over her skirt and a white top connected by black suspenders.  
She wears dark red stockings as well giving her thighs a more appealing aura.

"The name of this elegant woman who has sacrificed her pride to appear? I believe the name Crescent will do, yes such a beautiful name" the woman says in cutesy voice but somehow still sounded intimidating.

Zetta tried to move away from her but behind him was the sadistic Gothitelle  
"Gotttt!" The humanoid pokemon held his back and refused to let go while smiling.

"Let go! Stay back!" Zetta struggled to get away his face painted with fear.

"Is that fear? Hehehe you should know that's what monsters like me feed on" Crescent licks her lips as she reached for his face.

"Noooooo!" Zetta's eyes are now pouring with tears

" SA YO NA RA " Crescent touches his forehead and in a spilt second he vanishes as if he was never there in the first place.

The 3 kids look on in shock at the display of Crescent's power.

"What did you do to him?" Venam was the first to ask.

"That's inconsequential, further more didn't I warn you two? Ray and Ren?" Crescent points at the 2 boys.  
"I said only despair awaits you yet you came anyway?"

"We followed the path we'd regret the least!" Ren stood up for his friend.

"It still amounted to nothing, but blood on your hands, Melia is dead no changing that" Crescent didn't sugar-coat her words making it sting more.

"We tried to save her!" Venam yells in objection. 

"Whatever makes you sleep at night honey. Ray I warn you again, don't get involved in this, leave team Xen alone, go do stupid teenager shit! Leave this region's problem to those with actual power, Aurevoir(good bye)" Crescent leaves her final message and vanishes with Gothitelle behind her.

Venam moves to the right aide of the cave and punches the wall in frustration 'bamm!'  
"Damn her! Melia's.... Melia's gone" Venam said sadly.

"We'll avenge her, we'll end Team Xen for good" Ren reassures Venam.

"No I'm going back to my gym, I'll get so strong that that bitch Crescent or team Xen won't even stand a chance against me!" Venam roars .

"I'll get stronger as well! When the time comes I'll join you in the fight!" Ren raises his fist towards her.

"Heh! I'll hold you that" the bump fist and their attention turns to Ray.

Ray is holding Piplup in his right hand and picking up a card from Melia's bag with his left.

"I'm also going to get stronger but not just for revenge, call me crazy if you like but Melia's alive" Ray says this with a straight face causing Venam and Ren to question his sanity.

"I'll find her definitely!" With eyes of determination he clenched his fist.

" 'Sighhhhhhhh' good luck with that " Venam says as she walks away not even giving him a glance.

"Ray, you should continue your gym journey as well, north is Sheridan village home to the next gym leader it's close to goldenleaf town... " Ren hesitates for a moment.

"That's my home town and it's currently in a dilemma which I have to get strong enough to fix" Ren continues.

"If you need help with that I'll be there in a heartbeat" Ray says with a smile.

"I know.... We'll meet again! Stay strong buddy" Ren smiles as he shakes his friends hand.

Ren the disappears north leaving Ray alone.

"Come on Pip, I'll heal you up when we get to Sheridan, no matter how much life tries to put us down we'll stand right back up!" Ray said trying to keep his spirits up until....

"Awroooooooooooooo!" From the darkness of the cave a howl is heard.

Ray quickly understands "Rocky!" The dark skinned boy cries as he runs towards the sound.

There on a huge slab of rock, a creature standing on it's hind legs howls in the dark.

"Rocky!" Ray repeats himself.

The creature jumps down and runs to Ray giving him a closer look.

It had white fur with red strips on it's body, with 3 sharp rocks around it's neck, in simple terms it looked like a white and red rock werewolf

Ray checked his Pokedex  
Lycanroc(midnight form)  
The wolf Pokemon  
A rock type  
The evolved form of Rockruff  
It's the hardest lycanroc form to train out of the 3, it only listens to trainers who can draw out their full power.

"Midnight form, this is 2:00pm! That altered dimension Nim took is to must have mutated you somehow" Ray says as he rubs her fur.

"We've got a lot of work to do guys"  
Ray notes this as he gets ready to embark on a new journey

To be continued in the Sheridan village (Aelita's debut!)


	11. Sheridan and the soul stone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aelita

Amethyst cave exit  
This part of the cave was filled with minecarts transporting crystals, two waterfalls making it look quite vibrant, yet Ray mind was on something else... He had met the mysterious hooded man again this time the man asked him to locate him in Sheridan village and since he was the only lead to Melia, Ray had no choice.

Village outskirts  
Coming out of the cave the bright light stung his eyes a little, he looked down the stone stairs to see a vibrant green scenery with a Large wooden gate saying "Sheridan".

He then notices two individuals arguing one is a muscular girl about his age with purple hair wearing spats and a white sports shirt with a red cross design, and the other was an elderly looking woman with gray hair in a white and red tribal gown holding a staff with an "O" on it.

"Its gone on for too long! His negligence is driving people away from the village, Eldest!" The purple haired girl shouted as she addressed the old woman

"I know this Aelita... But he must have his reasons for shutting everyone out" the eldest replied to the girl now known as Aelita.

"Sheridan village is a place of community!" Aelita reads the sign out loud "it's always been our pride and joy to be United as one but not anymore people are leaving in droves now! If the leader is being slient what are we to do?!" She shouts again.

"I've lived here for years, we've faced far worse and came out of it alive and well" the eldest says as she shows off her old muscles.

"Well that's reassuring..." Aelita said in a sarcastic manner.

"Yes it is, never give up young one, hope will show itself is the darkest of times, to turn bad situations into good situation" Eldest said in a calming tone.

"you're right Eldest. I'll go speack with him right now! Let's go Hawlucha!" Aelita sends out a red and green bipedal hawk that looks like it's wearing a mask and the 2 dash north towards the village.

"Wait that's not what...... 'Sighhhhhh' there's so much of Vivian in that lass" Eldest smiles a bit.

"Vivian?" Ray unconsciously says out loud alerting Eldest who looks at him with a grim expression.

(So he has finally reached this place) she said in her mind, "Hello and welcome to Sheridan village, I hope that little quarrel didn't make you want to leave?" She says kindly trying to find her previous expression.

"No It's fine, my name's Ray by the way, also if you wouldn't mind could you take me to the Pokemon center here?" Ray asked.

"No problem, follow me lad" eldest then walks north and Ray follows her.

Sheridan village  
The setting is quite different from Gearan which was huge with story buildings, Sheridan had a more Edo period look to it with wooden houses and sliding doors, the few occupants here all looked like martial artists.

Pokemon center  
After giving all 5 of his pokeballs to the nurse joy here(who wore a pink kimono) he decided to chat with the eldest.

"I am the Eldest of this village, advisor to the Sensei/gym leader of village who is currently in a slump..." She said with sad expression.

"Can you tell me why he's in a slump, I need his badge to get stronger" Ray presses the issue.

"I wish he would tell me, sadly if you want the badge you'll have to talk him into a battle" Eldest answered.

"Damn... Alright he should be in the biggest house on the mountain right? I'll make him battle me for sure!" Ray stands up from his sit and turns to nurse joy

"Your Pokemon are all healed, take care now" nurse joy said with a smile.

"Alright come out guys! 'poooop!' " Ray released all his Pokemon to observe them

"Pipluppp!" Pip said happily showing he was back to 100%

"Zzzzzz" Weepinbell was still sleeping making Ray pop a vein on his forehead.

"Leooo!" Leo was also ready for action

"Swooo", "yah yah get off!" Swoobat had once again tied it's tail around Ray and hugged him to his displeasure.

".........'Lick' " Rocky the lycanroc completely ignored Ray and started licking her red and white fur.

"Rocky?" Ray turned to face her but she would just turn the other way.

(The hell?! Is she in her rebellious phase!) Ray thought as his face turned red with anger.

In case this sudden change in personality would affect his team's strategy he decided to take a sixth Pokemon from his PC.  
He collected the Pichu he earned from his battle with novea(chapter 5).

"Pichuuu!" The electric mouse cried happily.

"Learn from the others for now little guy" Ray said as he returned all of them to their balls and went off to the hill.

Sheridan arena  
On the hill top next to the huge Edo style mansion was a big battle field in the middle of a small stream meaning knocking an opponent into the water was a fair strategy.  
As Ray made his way to the field he was challenged by 2 martial artists and their fighting types which he sweep with Piplup, Swoobat and Weepinbell.  
After winning, the martial artists asked him to try and speak with the Sensei.

As he got to the doors of the mansion he saw Aelita kneeling by the door with Hawlucha by her side.

"You still won't talk to me anymore?, what did I do wrong? I wish you would tell me..." Aelita said in a heartbreaking voice the frustration was very visible.

Seeing her in this state made Ray sad so he put a hand on her shoulder  
"Hey, are you okay?" He asked softly.

"Huh?!" Aelita jumped back startled and wiped her red face "yah I'm okay! Sorry for blocking you" she bows her head.

"Don't worry about it" (she's a lot different from how I imagined) Ray says as he's surprised she isn't the violent type of girl.

"My name is Aelita, I'm a student here, if your interested in talking to the Ke..... Sensei I'd say your wasting your time" she says to him with a sad face.

"well I've come too far to quit, I'll definitely make him talk!" Ray say as he puts his hand on the sliding door

"Mmmmm..... What's your name?" Aelita asked looking very interested

"Ray! The future champion of this whole region, believe it!" Ray gives her a big smile.

Aelita's eyes light up, this guy was giving off a similar aura to the one Sensei once gave off.  
"Ray huh? I like it, good luck Ray!" She says smiling and rushes off with her Pokemon.

Sensei's house  
As soon as he entered the mansion the same figure that stopped him before (chapter 7) was standing in front of him, the purple hooded man. "You?!" Ray says surprised

"Here lies a soul who lives solely to cast a shadow" the man lifts his hoody revealing his pale face and dried up raven hair(looked in bad shaped)  
"My name is Keta, the Sensei of Sheridan, follow me" he says this as he begins to wall to the back of the well decorated palour Ray follows him.

Backroom  
This open roofed environment houses numerous beautiful flowers and in the center was a designed plank of wood with the words "Teaila: gone but not forgotten"  
Keta puts his hand on the plank and says "I'm sorry Teaila but smiling has become somewhat impossible" he said in a sad tone.

"Hey, you've got information on Melia haven't you?!" Ray butts in.

"Ah Melia... A familiar name, you and your friends failed to save her... Don't tell me you think you could have saved her if you were stronger?" Keta asked in a somewhat mocking tone.

"I..." Ray couldn't find the words.

"Bullshit! Kid nothing could have been done! That's fate it's written, only fool try to change that!"

"Then I guess am a fool! Cause I know she's still alive and I'll find her!" Ray declared again.

"Sighhhhhhhh, alright then" Keta facepalmed.  
"I've got a way for you to check if it's possible to save her".

"Really?!!!" Ray's eyes lit up.

"In amethyst cave, there's a bright red stone, that's the key into the hidden grotto, there you'll find the Soul stone  
Take it to where Melia died if her soul is captured in it then her fate is sealed, but if nothing happens there's a slim chance, when that's done return here" Keta said all this and turned his back to Ray.

"Heh! Is that all! Piece of cake!" Ray ran out with no hesitation homebound to the cave.

Amethyst cave exit  
"Pip pip luppp" was out of his pokeball and doing something like a karate chop with his wings as he walked.

"Hehehe, Are you trying to imitate Jackie chan or something?" Ray laughed as he saw this.

"Hey Ray wait up!" Ray turns to see Aelita and Hawlucha running towards him with a small green box.

"Huh Aelita?" Ray asked confused.

"Sensei gave you a trial didn't he? Here I made these rice balls for you in case it was a tiring task" Aelita says and hands him the box with 3 rice balls tied with seaweed wrap.

"Really?! Thanks a lot Aelita you're a pal! Pip here" Ray says gratefully and hands one to his penguin.

"Pipluuuuu!" Piplup says in joy as the taste of the rice balls explode in his mouth.

"These are amazing! 'munch munch' " Ray shouts and continues eating.

"You got Sensei to talk it's the least I could do, his not been the same in a while" Aelita's tone gets sadder " If only my mom wasn't killed by that red thief she'd know what to do" Aelita faced looked pained making Ray stop munching.

"It's okay Aelita... When I get back I'll make sure to battle him and knock some sense into his head" Ray puts a hand on his chest

"Ray..... Try your best I'm rooting for you" Aelita smiled at him making him once again question her muscles (she's so g)

Hawlucha also gave a head Pat to Piplup since they were both birds they must share a bond.

The cave  
After finishing off the rise ball, it didn't take up to 5 minutes to find the red stone sitting near a wall.

"Alright Rocky smash it!" Ray sent out his newly Evolved dog however

"Yawnnnn!" The dog yawned and didn't even move an inch to the rock.

"Rocky! Come on girl!" Ray pleaded but the midnight lycanroc didn't obey him.

"Return.... I hope this phase passes quickly" Ray recalled by the disobedience dog and when towards the stone.

"Okay hop about this" 'tap' Ray slaps the stone slightly and 'twickkkk!' the disappeared leaving behind a hole in the wall which Ray enters.

Amethyst grotto  
The environment was much different from the gave plants were everywhere despite no sun light and the trees were red, in the middle of the room was a circular stone with five stone blocks around it wilth a translucent man floating

"Wait a second Keta?!" Ray shouted as he realized the ghost was Keta.

"Yes and no, I'm the emotions that fool cast aside and trapped in this grotto" the ghost Keta said as he moved his hands revealing translucent purple chains binding him to the ground.

"But why?" Ray asked.

"That man has suffered so much in the past he believed ridding him self of emotions would work, but it didn't work he was apart of team Xen as well poor fool, but.... For him to send you here? You must be special here" Keta points at Ray's right hand.

"Huh? Is that?" Ray looks at his hand and sees a purple crystal like stone the size of a tennis ball.

"Take that do what you must, and bring that fool piece of mind that's my request to you" ghost Keta then vanished but his presence remained.

Ray's heart began to beat faster, the hard part began...

Amethyst depth  
Every step he took towards this area felt heavy, he couldn't hide his fear, (what if Melia's soul is really here?) He thought to himself, he couldn't even imagine what he'd do if that was the case.

Finally he reached where her red bag was, where he met her demise, with balls of steel he kept the stone on her bag and..........  
.........   
.........  
........ 

Absolutely nothing happened, he sank to his knees and was able to breath again.  
He couldn't even smiled the tension was too much  
"She's....... alive" he said softly as if he was weeping.

Sensei's house  
Ray had returned immediately after confirming Melia's soul wasn't in the cave.

Keta collected the stone and said "hehehe fate favors the fool once again" and gives a small sarcastic smile.

"Can you find her?!" Ray asked impatiently.

"Sorry but, no, she's not here, I can't tell if it's my fault or if she's not in this world anymore, you should keep the stone maybe you'll find more clues" Keta tosses it back.

"It never gets easier does it, but at least I know there's a chance! Now then!" Ray's eyes lit up "I challenge you to a gym battle Keta!!!".

Keta sighed and stood up "I guess there's no choice, let me see how you battle boy" he looks Ray in the eyes.

Sheridan arena  
Literally everyone in the village gathered to watch this battle,   
"Go Ray!", "You can do it", "show the Sensei who's boss!" All the cheers were one sided mostly due to Keta attitude.

Even the Eldest was surprised (Keta was in a worse condition than before) she thought to herself.  
Aelita was going to be the referee, her Hawlucha and Ray's Pichu sat behind her at the side of the field.

Ray had gotten some advice from Jan  
First was that Keta's Pokemon was Lucario and it's signature move is Gale fist an attack that gets stronger the more beat up the user is  
Secondly was the field is a forest terrain giving a boost to grass types  
And finally to use flying or psychic type(fighting > psychic) Pokemon however...

"This battle will be a 2 V 2 double battle the trainer with the last standing Pokemon wins, begin!"

"Go Lucario, machoke...." Keta said nonchalantly, as he tossed to balls on to the stage  
'pop!' "luuuu", "Choook" His Pokemon also didn't seem like they had the fighting spirit Lucario was a shiny purple bipedal dog with iron spikes on its paws and chest, while machoke was a muscular purple humanoid creature with veins sticking out of its arms(also it wore black pants).

"Hehehe see this! Weepinbell, Pip I choose you two!" Ray says smiling as he tosses his balls upwards.

'Pop!' "piplupp!!!", "Weeeep!!!" Piplup and even Weepinbell seemed ready to kick some ass.

(He has a Swoobat yet his going with weaker Pokemon?) Aelita questioned him in her mind

"Lucario Aura sphere, machoke low kick" Keta said with no energy.

"Luu" Lucario shot out a small blue orb of Aura at Piplup while machoke went to kick Weepinbell how.

"Pip, bubble beam!", "Pipluplupluuu!" Ray commanded and Piplup launched a blue beam of bubbles at the orb destroying it and even hitting Lucario  
"caaa!" It cried.

"Weepinbell dodge it and counter with vine whip!", " Bellll!" Ray ordered the plant who uses it's big leaf arms to propel it's body upwards 'whoooshhh' dust flew blinding machoke a bit finally...  
"Weepinnnbell!" 2 vines appeared for the back of it's leaf arms and started lashing away machoke with no mercy and even hit Lucario too "maaa!", "Luccaaa" both Pokemon fell backwards(forest terrain increased the vine whips power).

"What?!", "No way", "this is seriously like David and Goliath!" The crowd screamed seeing as Ray's tiny Pokemon were making Keta's huge monsters look like chumps.

(Ray sugoi....) Aelita couldn't help but be amazed by Ray's training skill.

"Pipichuuu!" Pichu smiled as it was observing and soaking up Exp.  
"Hawww" Hawlucha also smiled at Piplup's growth.

(Hmmm, I'll go for the plant and weaken his momentum) "Lucario, ice punch on Weepinbell, machoke rock smash on the plant as well" Keta ordered

"Luu", "chokee" Lucario's fist turned Blue and the muscular giant lunched a fist too.

"Not so fast Pip, counter them!" Ray ordered.

"Piplupp! Pippluuu!" The penguin got in front of Weepinbell, fisrt he hit away Lucario's fist with his flipper 'tgicc' and then kicks machoke's hand to the ground breaking it 'bammmm!'.

"Alright Weepinbell!, Infestation!" Ray commanded

Unexpectedly the forest terrain once again powered up Weepinbell's attack  
"Weeepppp!" 'the plant send out a swarm of green glowing orbs that surrounded Keta's Pokemon sending them back to his far side of the field,

As the others were trying to rid themselves of the infestation Ray went to work with another strategy  
"Weepinbell use plant your arms in the middle sides of field and move towards me as far as you can!" Ray orders.

Weepinbell puts it's arms on the left and right side of the field in the middle and moves towards Ray, it's arm were currently stretching like a rubber band.

"Pip use Peck and jump on Weepinbell's face, stop moving when I give the signal" Ray added.

"Pippp!" Piplup's beak started glowing white as he jumped on Weepinbell's face and then "Now!!!" Ray shouted and Weepinbell stopped moving causing him to fling Piplup straight forward.

"Witness our battle technique “Jungle catapult!!!” Ray shout as Piplup flew towards Machoke 'shwooooosh!!', "maaaa!" Machoke took the full force of the accelerated Peck to the gut, it fainted as soon as it was pushed out of the field.

"What?" Keta was dumbfounded by the insane strategy just used.

"Ma..... machoke is unable to battle Sensei is down to his last Pokemon!" Aelita Announced.

"Wowwwwww!" The whole crowd went insane.

"You see that Keta! Fate may suck most of the time but there's someone it doesn't control and that's our growth!" Ray roared "I don't care anymore if fate tries to stop me I'll tear it down!" 

Hearing his master's decree, something within Piplup sparked  
"Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!"  
In a flash of blue lights and bubbles, Piplup's shape began to change.

"His evolving?!" Aelita shouted in surprise.

"Yoshaaaaa!!!! Finally!!!!!" Ray went down on his knees seeing his starter finally reach a new frontier.

"Prrrriiii" Pip's voice got deeper , from his head to his ribs got covered in dark blue feathers while his bottom remained light blue,  
2 yellow Combs grew on top his head and merged with his beak making it sharper, his wings got longer and sharper like blades, it's height was now reaching Ray's waist,  
And finally it's eye color was now bright blue.

"Prinpluppp!!!!!!" The newly Evolved penguin yelled with pride.

Ray used his Pokedex  
"Prinplup the penguin Pokemon  
A water type and the Evolved form of Piplup  
Using it's sharp flipper it's able to chop down a tree with a single swipe"  
"Freaking wicked! Alright Pip, finish off Lucario!" Ray ordered

"Prinnnnnn!" The penguin jumped with force thanks to his stronger legs , he readied his flipper like a sword which was strangely glowing silver (new move?), However.....

"Tsk....." Keta hissed as his final Pokemon was going to be knocked, but his reason for hissing was the fact he could no longer see Ray standing in front of him, what he saw was a younger version of himself.

(I had forgotten something important, Teaila I finally know what you meant) Keta smiled for the first time in ages before.

"I'm not done yet!!!!!!!!!" He shouted causing everyone around him to feel the wild Aura.

"Lucario! Gale fist!!!" Keta yelled and as prinplup's flipper blade was inches away from Lucario's neck....  
'Booooom!', "pr.............!" Prinplup's stomach was assaulted by a sharp pain planted by Lucario's fist

"Carrrrrrr!" A wave of wind pushed Prinplup towards Weepinbell knocking the two into the water and causing an explosion 'boooooom!' While Lucario's whole body erupts with power.

"Nani?" Ray couldn't process what just happened.

Aelita and Hawlucha rushed over to check the status of Ray's Pokemon.  
"Both Prinplup and weepinbell are unable to battle, the winner of the match is Sensei!" Aelita says and points to Keta.

"No way", "that Gale fist really saved Sensei", such a wild match" the crowd chattered

"Damnit! I want a rematch! You were holding out on me Ket....." Ray's shouted was stopped when he looked at Keta's smiling face.

"Kehehehehe, sorry Ray but I'll have to deny you your rematch for now, there's something I have to do, something I should have done years again!" Keta says and then runs of to the base of the mountain.

"Wait Sensei!" Aelita chases after him.

"Lass!" Eldest follows as well.

"The hell! I ain't missing this! Return guys!" Ray retrieves his Pokemon and rushes after Keta.

Ray's first gym battle lose, Determined for a rematch what awaits him is something much worse.  
To be continued


	12. Mountain of atonement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray and Keta

Ray rushed after the two women in front of him, as they ran, the elderly one tripped over.

"Grfff!" The woman hisses as she fell.

"Oi Granny? You okay?" Ray helps her back on her feet.

"I'm not as fit as I used to be, boy I think I saw Aelita run through the waterfall, please watch her for me" eldest requests and holds her injured foot.

"Alright, leave it to me!" Ray runs off to the waterfall.

'Pusshhhhhhhheeeee!' the waterfall rapidly splashes giving off this noise as Ray passes underneath it until

"Wow!" Ray is grabbed and taking through a hidden passage behind the waterfall.

Caratos mountain  
Ray looks around to see the surrounding, the cave is red and the floor is heated thanks to the flowing magma flow.

"Magma!!!" Ray shouted.

"Calm down Ray, I'm also surprised by the magma and steam" Aelita reveals herself to be the one that pulled Ray into the mountain.

"This place used to be full of underground life but now it feels like a warped hell hole, we need to find Sensei quick, will you help me?" Aelita asked nervously.

"Sure thing! Eldest also said I should help you out so no biggie" Ray gives a firm smile.

"Thank you, thank you so much!" Aelita bows 5 times in a row.

The two pass by a metal bridge over the lava until....'pufff', 'pufff', puff'.  
3 red tentacles grow out of the ground and observe the duo.

"Gross what are those" Aelita asked as she's digested by the red swirly tentacles.

"These?...(they were on the boat too!) Let's move!" Ray sensing danger began to Sprint towards the the metallic building in the North side of mountain.

"Wait up!" Aelita follows behind him sensing his anxiety.

The two reach a metallic door with a big red 'X' symbol on it, as they got closer a red cylindrical shaped object emerges from the ground and blocks their way.

"What the?" Aelita said confused

"Hell is that thing?!" Ray questions.

The cylinder like device gets a black screen near it's too with flashes with a deep green light  
"Beep boop beep!" It's says in a robotic voice.  
"I'm no thing, I'm also nothing!" The robot face forms on the black screen, two green eyes and a green mouth displayed on it 

Aelita and Ray cringed at the awful joke.

"Hello I am security enforcer component! SEC for short" the robot said happily

"You! You were the one on the S.S oceana!" Ray points at it angrily.

"No not me I'm model #3567, the one that accompanied miss Nastasia was model #3565. Now then where are your team Xen ID cards" SEC asked.

"Team Xen?(that sounds familiar)" Aelita puts a finger on her chin.

"We're not apart of team Xen you bucket of bolts!" Ray shouts at the robot.

"Nani!!! Intruders!!! You dare trick dare old SEC! Battle mode engage!!" SEC's face turns red as he shoots out a red and purple pokeball.  
'pop!!!' the Pokemon opens up revealing a horse like purple flames around it's body "grrrriiiiiiiiiihhhh!" The screamed madly.

"A shadow Pokemon?! Damn Pichu I choose you!" Ray yells as he flings his own pokeball into the air.  
'pop!' "piccchuuu!" A small yellow electric rodent comes out of the ball sparking with a flare.

"Shadow Pokemon?" Aelita is surprised by the monster in front of her.

"Hahahaha foolish boy! A tiny rat can't fight a horse!" SEC laughs until

"Pichu blast both of them with a Thundershock!" Ray shouts.

"Piiiiiiichuuuuuu!" The mouse sends out a powerful stream of electricity that zaps both the horse and SEC.

"Bbeeezzzzzze does not compute does not compute!" The robot is confused by the amount of power the mouse has.

"Don't underestimate my Pichu, metal ass!" Ray shouts again.

(That's right during Ray's battle with Sensei, Pichu was watching closely, any weak Pokemon that observes a battle from it's teammates closely gets experience and Powers up) Aelita explained.

"Now to get rid of that shadow! Snag on!!!" Ray yells and throws a normal Pokemon with his right hand (snag machine glove on).

'Twikkk!' a purple net escapes from the ball and traps the shadow Pokemon within it.

"Alright I snagged the ponyta!" Ray shouts happily.

"No! Systems failing!.... I.....was supposed.. to win....." SEC begins to flash and suddenly stopped working.

"Ah.... it's dead?" Ray wondered.

"Rest in peace SEC" Aelita says kindly until.

"Sike! I'm back!!!you missed me! Now self destruct mode engage!" The stupid robot turns back on and this time a stick of dynamite emerges from it's head.

"Is that dynamite?!" Aelita screams 

"You seriously gonna blow up?!" Ray asked.

"Foolish boy! Even if the me here perishes I'm connected by a large network! For the entirety of your journey here I'll be your rival!!! Sayonara Ray!!!" SEC shouts before 'booooommmm' a small explosion happens destroying the robot's cylindrical form and opening the metal door.

"Sighhhhhhhh... Just what I need more weirdos, let's go..." Ray wants to go through the door but...

"Hey Ray I know we're in a hurry but can you tell me about shadow Pokemon" Aelita holds Ray's right hand.

Ray quickly tells her all the information he has on the topic and also how he's able to catch them with the snag machine glove.

Aelita wonders how Keta could be related to this.

The two went through the destroyed door, meeting two grunts looking at them guarding a heavier locked door.

"Damn it's that punk from the forest" the male grunt cursed.

"we won't let you find the passwords into the next room" the other male grunt said.

"If their hell bent on stopping me here, the passwords must be here Aelita hold them off for a bit!" Ray sprints away from the grunts.

"As if we'll let you leave..." The grunts yelled until.

"Hawlucha karate chop!" Aelita ordered her red bipedal hawk.

"Hawwwww!" With incredible speed the hawk hit the back of the necks of each grunt knocking them out.

"Gufff!" , "Gahhh!" The two grunts grunted as they last consciousness.

"Swoo! I choose you!" Ray says sending out his bat.  
"Find the passwords, here" he asked.

"Swwwwoooooooooo" the bat foys off and used it's echo location to find 3 pieces and brought them back in it's tail.

"Good work Swoobat!, Aelita I got the passwords let's go" Ray joyfully stated.

"Coming! Let's go Hawlucha" Aelita called her hawk and both trailed Ray to a door.

As Ray was about to type in the codes into a control panel, something from the floor popped out.

The cylindrical robot returned with it's black screen showing a dangerous green smile.  
"SEC here! please insert passwords" SEC said happily, as if he didn't know the two in front of him.

"Pfft, whatever, the passwords are Beauty, idol and shadow" Ray said trying to keep his cool.

"That's correct, you may leave now bye" SEC, said that and didn't move an inch from the iron door.

"Umm SEC aren't you supposed to move?" Aelita asked.

"Nothing I don't have to do anything else good bye!" SEC said again nonchalantly.

"Don't screw with me, annoying robot!" Ray yells.

"What's wrong with you?! Do you have a thing for me :Weird couple harassing poor robot: posted to Twitter" SEC says while his black screen turns to a blue bird.

Aelita looks confused as Ray gets ready to bring out Prinplup.

"Oh no you don't! tentacles go!" SEC says then ensnares the duo with his red tentacles.

"Kyahhh!" Aelita screams as the tentacles wrap around her chest causing Ray's face to turn red as he gazes at her.

"Boo.... I mean Pip go!!" Ray let's go of the poke ball from his free his starter.

'poooop!' "Prinnnnp!" The teenage looking penguin came out and his flippers grew longer and glowed silver,  
"Luuuuuuuu!" The starter cuts through the tentacles freeing both teens.

"Why you!! Prinplup finish it!" Ray ordered angrily.

"Not over yet self destruct mode!" SEC says and a stick of dynamite emerges from it's head.

"Wait, before you blow up, why didn't you use a shadow Pokemon like before?" Aelita asked.

"Wouldn't you like to Know" SEC said in a mocking tone before 'Booooommmm!' the robot explodes again blowing away yet another locked door behind it.

"It's likely that they don't have much shadow Pokemon to spare" Ray made note.

"Yah I believe that as well, let's keep moving" Aelita says and they continue on.

It seemed the duo had reached the last room on the ground floor, the giant metal elevator stood guarded by yet another SEC robot and 4 other Xen grunts.

"End of the line buddies! Engaging battle mode!!!" SEC says in a sadistic tone.

"I'm getting tired of you Terminator wannabe! Aelita handle the grunts, I'll take care of SEC!" Ray and Prinplup move towards SEC.

"Little girl begone! Go houndour!"   
"Poochyena get her"   
The two female grunts sent out dark furred dogs at Aelita.

"Be careful Ray! Let's do this Hawlucha!" 

SEC and Ray continue their rivalry, the deranged robot sends out a shadow Pokemon.  
"Rip and tear Quagsire!!!" SEC released a Blue otter like shadow Pokemon it's the same height as Ray standing on two stubby feet (water and ground type).

"Quuuaaaa!" The insane otter cried as it rushed the penguin.

"Pip, block it with that new move of yours! Metal claw!!!" Ray shouts and his starter's flippers then glow silver.

'clangggg!!!' the otter's headbutt clashes with the penguin's flipper doing moderate damage and pushing it back.

"Go another shadow Rush, dope!" SEC ordered Quagsire which when again for another shadow headbutt.

"Slash it's legs, get it unbalanced!" Ray told his starter.

"Prrrrrriiiinp" the penguin using his superior speed slashed the Otter's right leg injuring it and causing it to fall to the ground brutality  
'Bammmmm!' "Aasssaa!" the Otter cries as it falls.

"Alright I'll use a heavy ball on this one, Snag on!!" Ray throws a black colored ball with blue spots on it that snags the otter sharply.

"No fair, I should have at least won once! That's how rivalry works idiot!" SEC cries robotic tears.

"Just blow up already!" Aelita enters the conversation after Hawlucha finished beating up the grunts again.

"How cruel Aelita! I'm the last SEC copy here! What would Sensei think about your behavior!!!" SEC yells at her.

"Nani?!"(what) Aelita was taken off guard.

"Just kidding!" SEC sticks out a virtual green tongue as a stick of dynamite appears From it's head.

"To this isn't the last you've seen of SEC! Kattttttsuuuuu!" 'Booooommmm!'  
The robot blows up it's final copy let the duo reach the elevator.

"Goddamn that thing was annoying"   
Ray spat out.

"........." Aelita stood in slient thinking about how her Sensei could be involved with such people.

"Aelita save the day dreaming for when we save Keta, come on" Ray takes her left arm and drags her onto the elevator.

"Got it, I'm cool now" Aelita shook her head and adjusted as both were elevated to the 46th floor.

46th floor  
They were close to the summit of the mountain now, here the area was classy with decorations everywhere and statue of a familiar woman.

'dro dro dro dro' as the two took a single step, a wide screen TV came floating towards them on a spike covered with blue energy.

The flat screen gets a blue feminine face on it and says "Welcome! I am SEC 2.0, an upgraded version, call me CLARA desu!!" CLARA the new robot says happily.

"Another one!" Aelita speaks up.

The robot moves towards her in particular and scans her body with a blue laser.  
"Recognition: Aelita, objective capture!" CLARA then creates metal arms by her side and grabs the purple haired girl.

"Hey stop that!" Aelita screams as she's unable to get away from the robotic arms.

"Let her go!" Ray tries to grab ahold of CLARA but she Dodges and floats away with Aelita screaming "kyahhhhhhhh!".

As Soon the robot fled with the girl numerous speakers sounded out.  
"Greetings Keta and another unwanted guest! This is the ever so beautiful Medalis admin of team Xen! I have your precious student Aelita if you want her back meet me in my quarters by finding the four keys scattered around! Good luck and don't keep me waiting! I can't wait to destroy you both"  
The announcement ended and Ray recognized that voice as the woman he saw in Gearan labs.

'bammm!!!! The door was opened by an immense force which turned out to be...

"Keta?!!" The dark skinned boy asked in surprise.

"Ray! I knew you'd be here quickly, we need the last key I already have 3, I can't let Aelita suffer for what I did" the pale looking martial artist said.

"Alright then let me quickly check the room to the left!" Ray agrees and runs to the left most door.

Left room  
Here another heavily decorated room filled with pipes containing sleeping Pokemon.

"Is this where they get the Pokemon supply to turn them in to shadow Pokemon?" The young teen wondered.

"Uwaaaahhh!" Ray hears another familiar voice and heads towards it.

The voice turns out to be from a grunt Ray had met in the goldenwood forest.  
It was Eli the dark haired nincompoop who had currently got himself stick in a tube.  
"Uwwwwwa" he hit the glass helplessly in a comical fashion.

Another female grunt who's name Ray couldn't remember was shouting.  
"How'd you even get in there?!" She said as her orange twintails stood up.

"Ahhh, your that kid from the forest Ray!" She said surprised.

"And you two were the elite grunts Eli and Shannon!" Ray also points at her.

"It's Sharon! Whatever take this key and leave I have no intention of helping that bitch Medalis, her personality is shit!" Sharon yells her heart out and gives the boy a yellow key.

"Thanks I guess" Ray then proceeded to leave the two alone until...

"You aren't going anywhere punk! Zigzagoon sick am!" Another grunt came from the shadow and attacked Ray with a raccoon like monster.

"Alright pi...." before Ray could send out his trusted starter another one of his Pokemon forced it's was out of it's ball. 'phuuuuuuu' .  
The blue light clears revealing the evolved dog lycanroc.

"Lyyyyyycaaaaaa!" Rocky cried as she charged the raccoon.

"Hey Rocky! At least listen to me! Is rock tomb!" Ray tried to command the dog but.....

"Rawwwwwww!" She didn't listen and continued to lash out with her claws.

"Dodge and use giga impact!" The grunt ordered his raccoon.

"Ziggggzaaaa!" The brown raccoon turns white and tackles Rocky with severe power however...

"Ly........caaaaroooooii!" Taking the full force of giga impact Rocky's fist glows red as she gives an upper cut to the raccoon.

"Ziii.............!" The force behind that blow knocked out zigzagoon instantly.

"No way?!! Counter?" The grunts realized that the dog had used a new move.

"Another move? Rocky if only you listened to me!" Ray cried tears seeing such a powerful Pokemon not listen to him.

"I'll get you next time!!" The grunt runs away again.

"Rrrrrrrooooooo!" Lycanroc heads back to Keta's position and Ray follows suit yelling at her.

Keta patiently waits by the locked door with 3 keys already placed in their holes.

Keta hears noices and assumes it's Ray until "you got the key....?" Keta looked confused when he saw instead lycan9 charging the door.

"Lyccccarocccc!" 'bammmmmm!' The deranged dog punches the locked door with tremendous force breaking it down.

"Ray control your partner!" Keta yells at the black boy.

"Sorry but hey the door's open" Ray raises his hands in defense.

Medalis's liar  
Even more creepier statues and paintings of Medalis can be seen in this red room, really adding more to her sociopathic personality.

Medalis sits comfortably on her red throne seeing Keta and Ray walk in gives her a evil grin, her hair is tied into 2 pointy ponytails, her uniform is gray and red different from the grunts, she wears red gloves as well.

Aelita runs away from her area and joins back with Ray and Keta.  
"Sensei, Ray!" She shouts happily.

"Well Keta are you finally ready to owe up to our deal" Medalis says still smiling.

"What deal?" Aelita asked.

"The deal to this whole Village! It's under Team Xen's control thanks to your Sensei!" Medalis shouts sadistically.

"It's a lie!!!" The purple haired girl protested.

"Aelita!.... It's true but now I'm going to drive you all out!" Keta admitted.

"Traitor! I'll just have to destroy all of you, awaken my strongest creation!" Medalis shouts in anger.

Behind her a giant tube opens up and from within it a monster steps forward.  
'tap tap tap' every step it makes leaves a dent in the iron floor.

"That's?!!!" Ray's eyes widened in fear.

"That's right Mewtwo or should I say shadow Mewtwo my ultimate shadow Pokemon!" 

"I'll just snag it!" Ray yells as he gets out a great blue ball.

"Not so fast E.M.P!" Medalis says and a huge red energy field surrounded the entire room.

'blizzzzzttt!' "gahhh!" Ray's right hand shocks him as smoke comes outs his snag machine is busted.

"Gyahahahhaha You won't be getting in my way boy!" Medalis laughs like a Maniac

"Mmrawwwwwwww!" The creature cries out, it's entire body is black as it emits purple energy on it's right shoulder a red and blue crystal spike can be seen, it's black tail was restlessly flailing around.

"Shadow Mewtwo take. Care of Keta and that girl, the boy is mine!" Medalis brings out two pokeballs.

"Ereereeewwwwww!" The shadow cat charged at Aelita however.

"Lucario!!!!" Is fast enough to send out his bipedal dog to block the attack.

"Caaaa!" Lucario growls at the shadow Pokemon.

"You sure care about that girl don't you?" Medalis asked curiously.

"Of course she's my daughter after all!" Keta confesses.

"That explains a lot!!!" Ray yells in surprise.

"Come on, Mewtwo I'll be your opponent!" Keta yells.

"Dad" Aelita cries out.

"Splendid then I'll deal with this kid, beware I know what you did to Zetta so I'm ready for you! Houndoom!"Medalis send out her hell hound.

"Well get ready to be surprised! Pip!!!" Ray sends out his penguin!.

The battles start and first off Prinplup vs houndoom starts with a blast.

'shhhhhhhhzzzz' Bubbles clash with flames as the two Pokemon butt heads.

"Night slash!" Medalis orders.

"Counter with metal claw!" Ray makes a chop motion with his hands.

"Prrrriii!!", "Hoooouuu!" The Pokemon clash again this time silver flipper vs black claws 'claaaaaaakk!'.

"Llluuu" Prinplup sprays some bubbles oh his flippers making them stronger!   
"Doooo!" The dog is sent back by the metal water slash.

"What the hell? It combined it's moves?!" Medalis hissed she didn't know his Pokemon reached such a level.

"He recently Evolved, his skills are also evolving! I won't fall behind, Pip combo move bubbly Slash" Ray yells.

"Prinppoo!" The teenage penguin once again covers his flippers in bubbles and slash his enemy like his wielding a sword.

The hell hound once again takes damage.

"I won't be defeated like that boy! Houndoom full power fire blast show him our beauty" Medalis orders again.

"Hounnnnnddd" the dog covered in bones shot out a huge star shaped flame attack out at the penguin.

(Tsk, what move should I use!, None of his water attacks are strong enough to put out the flames and metal claw is...) Ray was thinking in super speed as he looked Prinplup on the eyes.

"........" Both beings looked each other in the eyes, Ray could see the trust his partner had in him.

Before the blast hit the penguin Ray took a deep breath and shouted "metal claw: single Slash" Ray commanded not taking his eyes of Prinplup.

'slaaaaasssssshhhhhhhh!' in a split second the fire blast was cut through  
"Ommmmmm!" The hell hound falls to it's feet realizing it was cut critically through it's shoulder.

"What the fuck?! I lost?! I'm too beautiful to lose!" Medalis shouts in rage.

Ray sees Prinplup in the stance of a swordsman, he wonders if he's getting stronger or Medalis was weak as fuck.

On the other side Keta seems to be in trouble.

"Lucario, Aura sphere!" Let yells.

"Luuu caaaarrr!" The purple bipedal dog shots a orb of fighting energy at the shadow Mewtwo but it Dodges.

"Mewwwwww!" The shadow beast shots out a purple flames attack that draws energy from the red crystal in it's shoulder.

'Booooom!' the blast sends Keta and Lucario flying.  
"Rwarrrrrrrrr!" The legendary doesn't let up and uses a blade of ice generated from the blue crystal to slash Lucario damaging it heavily.

"Dadddd watch out!" Aelita worries thinking how she can help her father.

(It has elemental attacks, guess I'll use my last resort now!) "Gale fist!" Keta yells again.

"Rioooooo!" Lucario fires a powerful wind fist at Mewtwo doing slight damage.

"Grrrrrrraa r!" Suddenly the Mewtwo begams to form a giant ball of psychic energy.

"Shadow Mewtwo aim for Aelita! Destroy everything precious to that bastard!!!" Medalis enters back to the battle after her defeat.

"Aelita!!!" Ray runs towards her as Keta and Lucario run and jump the Mewtwo.

'grab' 'grab' both martial artist grab hold of the floating black cat still pouring out white energy.

"Ray! Take her away from here, there's a generator in the heart of the mountain north of here destroy it and Team Xen will leave" Keta yells.

"No Daddddd!!!!!" Aelita cries out as Ray grabs her hand.  
Ray's reminded of his own mother and decided he'll do Keta's request.

"Aelita.... I love you, raising you were the best parts of my life, live!!!" Keta's voice echoes through the whole mountain as the room tunrs white.

Ray quickly runs to the north door which led to the heart of the mountain.  
'booooooooooiiiommmmmm!' the whole mountain shakes as the white blast eradicates Keta and Lucario.

"Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh" Aelita cries her heart out as Ray holds her tighter and continues to run.

Heart of the mountain  
Ray pants in exhaustion, holding on to the crying Aelita's hand he looks at the room numerous black pipes connected to a giant black machine looking beast submerged in lava which it was pumping through the whole mountain.

CLARA the robot was seen pointing at the beast, "Destroy the beast and team Xen will retreat".

"Let guess, you're helping me because Medalis is a bitch"Ray says tired.

"Exactly" CLARA says happily (even the robot hates Medalis).

"I won't let you! CLARA! It was mistake to buy you!" Medalis comes running towards Ray and Aelita with Mewtwo behind her.

Ray wants to fight but Aelita gets in front of him  
"Ray destroy that thing, I'll defeat this bitch" Aelita said bringing out her own pokeball.

"Oh daddy's girl wants revenge? I just wish you could have seen his body fry" Medalis mocks the young girl.

"Shut upp!!!!!" Aelita charges in anger.

Ray wants to help her but he has his hands full, he then runs and touches the side of the black robotic beast and suddenly his transported somewhere

Rift paradise  
Ray once again finds himself in another rift dimension however the environment isn't as disgusting as the others this once is full of blue flowers green trees and grass.

Momma......where are you?

Ray hears a child's voice and walks towards it.

On the straight pathway Ray's cybernav says  
"Rift data downloaded  
Code: Statia  
Stolen from it's mother it rages with the power of water and fire  
Ability: water absorb, water attacks are ineffective."  
His rift Dex is then updated.

Ray reaches a huge waterfall with the black metallic beast staring at him in a pitiful way it's face was like that of a cat leaking out both water and lava from it's mouth.

Can you help me find my mother?

Ray makes a shocking discovery the voice belonged to this monster.

(I'm supposed to kill this?.....) Ray was once again reminded of his own mother and bit his lip.

"Yes I'll take you to her" Ray lied through his teeth and smiled, this made him sick to his stomach.

His fake smile quickly faded as he brought out lycanroc who looked at him in disobedience.

"Please......... Rocky rock tomb" Ray turned his face away, his hair covering his eyes.

Feeling her master's pain lycanroc lifted her paws and 3 giant boulders we're formed from her energy.

"Lycannnnnnnnnn!" The dog sends the huge rocks at the beast destroying all the black pipes connected to it   
"Baaaaaam! Booooom', 'clannnkkk clangggg!' the sound of breaking metal could be heard as the whole environment was crumbling.

Ray expected screams but instead he heard

Thank you...... 

Ray grabbed his chest,(no matter what way you slice it, I killed it, Melia.... It's heavy) he's mind wondered as he was taken away from the dimension by a white flash of light

To be continued, next time the final chapter of Arc 2


	13. Mountain of atonement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray and Keta

Ray rushed after the two women in front of him, as they ran, the elderly one tripped over.

"Grfff!" The woman hisses as she fell.

"Oi Granny? You okay?" Ray helps her back on her feet.

"I'm not as fit as I used to be, boy I think I saw Aelita run through the waterfall, please watch her for me" eldest requests and holds her injured foot.

"Alright, leave it to me!" Ray runs off to the waterfall.

'Pusshhhhhhhheeeee!' the waterfall rapidly splashes giving off this noise as Ray passes underneath it until

"Wow!" Ray is grabbed and taking through a hidden passage behind the waterfall.

Caratos mountain  
Ray looks around to see the surrounding, the cave is red and the floor is heated thanks to the flowing magma flow.

"Magma!!!" Ray shouted.

"Calm down Ray, I'm also surprised by the magma and steam" Aelita reveals herself to be the one that pulled Ray into the mountain.

"This place used to be full of underground life but now it feels like a warped hell hole, we need to find Sensei quick, will you help me?" Aelita asked nervously.

"Sure thing! Eldest also said I should help you out so no biggie" Ray gives a firm smile.

"Thank you, thank you so much!" Aelita bows 5 times in a row.

The two pass by a metal bridge over the lava until....'pufff', 'pufff', puff'.  
3 red tentacles grow out of the ground and observe the duo.

"Gross what are those" Aelita asked as she's digested by the red swirly tentacles.

"These?...(they were on the boat too!) Let's move!" Ray sensing danger began to Sprint towards the the metallic building in the North side of mountain.

"Wait up!" Aelita follows behind him sensing his anxiety.

The two reach a metallic door with a big red 'X' symbol on it, as they got closer a red cylindrical shaped object emerges from the ground and blocks their way.

"What the?" Aelita said confused

"Hell is that thing?!" Ray questions.

The cylinder like device gets a black screen near it's too with flashes with a deep green light  
"Beep boop beep!" It's says in a robotic voice.  
"I'm no thing, I'm also nothing!" The robot face forms on the black screen, two green eyes and a green mouth displayed on it 

Aelita and Ray cringed at the awful joke.

"Hello I am security enforcer component! SEC for short" the robot said happily

"You! You were the one on the S.S oceana!" Ray points at it angrily.

"No not me I'm model #3567, the one that accompanied miss Nastasia was model #3565. Now then where are your team Xen ID cards" SEC asked.

"Team Xen?(that sounds familiar)" Aelita puts a finger on her chin.

"We're not apart of team Xen you bucket of bolts!" Ray shouts at the robot.

"Nani!!! Intruders!!! You dare trick dare old SEC! Battle mode engage!!" SEC's face turns red as he shoots out a red and purple pokeball.  
'pop!!!' the Pokemon opens up revealing a horse like purple flames around it's body "grrrriiiiiiiiiihhhh!" The screamed madly.

"A shadow Pokemon?! Damn Pichu I choose you!" Ray yells as he flings his own pokeball into the air.  
'pop!' "piccchuuu!" A small yellow electric rodent comes out of the ball sparking with a flare.

"Shadow Pokemon?" Aelita is surprised by the monster in front of her.

"Hahahaha foolish boy! A tiny rat can't fight a horse!" SEC laughs until

"Pichu blast both of them with a Thundershock!" Ray shouts.

"Piiiiiiichuuuuuu!" The mouse sends out a powerful stream of electricity that zaps both the horse and SEC.

"Bbeeezzzzzze does not compute does not compute!" The robot is confused by the amount of power the mouse has.

"Don't underestimate my Pichu, metal ass!" Ray shouts again.

(That's right during Ray's battle with Sensei, Pichu was watching closely, any weak Pokemon that observes a battle from it's teammates closely gets experience and Powers up) Aelita explained.

"Now to get rid of that shadow! Snag on!!!" Ray yells and throws a normal Pokemon with his right hand (snag machine glove on).

'Twikkk!' a purple net escapes from the ball and traps the shadow Pokemon within it.

"Alright I snagged the ponyta!" Ray shouts happily.

"No! Systems failing!.... I.....was supposed.. to win....." SEC begins to flash and suddenly stopped working.

"Ah.... it's dead?" Ray wondered.

"Rest in peace SEC" Aelita says kindly until.

"Sike! I'm back!!!you missed me! Now self destruct mode engage!" The stupid robot turns back on and this time a stick of dynamite emerges from it's head.

"Is that dynamite?!" Aelita screams 

"You seriously gonna blow up?!" Ray asked.

"Foolish boy! Even if the me here perishes I'm connected by a large network! For the entirety of your journey here I'll be your rival!!! Sayonara Ray!!!" SEC shouts before 'booooommmm' a small explosion happens destroying the robot's cylindrical form and opening the metal door.

"Sighhhhhhhh... Just what I need more weirdos, let's go..." Ray wants to go through the door but...

"Hey Ray I know we're in a hurry but can you tell me about shadow Pokemon" Aelita holds Ray's right hand.

Ray quickly tells her all the information he has on the topic and also how he's able to catch them with the snag machine glove.

Aelita wonders how Keta could be related to this.

The two went through the destroyed door, meeting two grunts looking at them guarding a heavier locked door.

"Damn it's that punk from the forest" the male grunt cursed.

"we won't let you find the passwords into the next room" the other male grunt said.

"If their hell bent on stopping me here, the passwords must be here Aelita hold them off for a bit!" Ray sprints away from the grunts.

"As if we'll let you leave..." The grunts yelled until.

"Hawlucha karate chop!" Aelita ordered her red bipedal hawk.

"Hawwwww!" With incredible speed the hawk hit the back of the necks of each grunt knocking them out.

"Gufff!" , "Gahhh!" The two grunts grunted as they last consciousness.

"Swoo! I choose you!" Ray says sending out his bat.  
"Find the passwords, here" he asked.

"Swwwwoooooooooo" the bat foys off and used it's echo location to find 3 pieces and brought them back in it's tail.

"Good work Swoobat!, Aelita I got the passwords let's go" Ray joyfully stated.

"Coming! Let's go Hawlucha" Aelita called her hawk and both trailed Ray to a door.

As Ray was about to type in the codes into a control panel, something from the floor popped out.

The cylindrical robot returned with it's black screen showing a dangerous green smile.  
"SEC here! please insert passwords" SEC said happily, as if he didn't know the two in front of him.

"Pfft, whatever, the passwords are Beauty, idol and shadow" Ray said trying to keep his cool.

"That's correct, you may leave now bye" SEC, said that and didn't move an inch from the iron door.

"Umm SEC aren't you supposed to move?" Aelita asked.

"Nothing I don't have to do anything else good bye!" SEC said again nonchalantly.

"Don't screw with me, annoying robot!" Ray yells.

"What's wrong with you?! Do you have a thing for me :Weird couple harassing poor robot: posted to Twitter" SEC says while his black screen turns to a blue bird.

Aelita looks confused as Ray gets ready to bring out Prinplup.

"Oh no you don't! tentacles go!" SEC says then ensnares the duo with his red tentacles.

"Kyahhh!" Aelita screams as the tentacles wrap around her chest causing Ray's face to turn red as he gazes at her.

"Boo.... I mean Pip go!!" Ray let's go of the poke ball from his free his starter.

'poooop!' "Prinnnnp!" The teenage looking penguin came out and his flippers grew longer and glowed silver,  
"Luuuuuuuu!" The starter cuts through the tentacles freeing both teens.

"Why you!! Prinplup finish it!" Ray ordered angrily.

"Not over yet self destruct mode!" SEC says and a stick of dynamite emerges from it's head.

"Wait, before you blow up, why didn't you use a shadow Pokemon like before?" Aelita asked.

"Wouldn't you like to Know" SEC said in a mocking tone before 'Booooommmm!' the robot explodes again blowing away yet another locked door behind it.

"It's likely that they don't have much shadow Pokemon to spare" Ray made note.

"Yah I believe that as well, let's keep moving" Aelita says and they continue on.

It seemed the duo had reached the last room on the ground floor, the giant metal elevator stood guarded by yet another SEC robot and 4 other Xen grunts.

"End of the line buddies! Engaging battle mode!!!" SEC says in a sadistic tone.

"I'm getting tired of you Terminator wannabe! Aelita handle the grunts, I'll take care of SEC!" Ray and Prinplup move towards SEC.

"Little girl begone! Go houndour!"   
"Poochyena get her"   
The two female grunts sent out dark furred dogs at Aelita.

"Be careful Ray! Let's do this Hawlucha!" 

SEC and Ray continue their rivalry, the deranged robot sends out a shadow Pokemon.  
"Rip and tear Quagsire!!!" SEC released a Blue otter like shadow Pokemon it's the same height as Ray standing on two stubby feet (water and ground type).

"Quuuaaaa!" The insane otter cried as it rushed the penguin.

"Pip, block it with that new move of yours! Metal claw!!!" Ray shouts and his starter's flippers then glow silver.

'clangggg!!!' the otter's headbutt clashes with the penguin's flipper doing moderate damage and pushing it back.

"Go another shadow Rush, dope!" SEC ordered Quagsire which when again for another shadow headbutt.

"Slash it's legs, get it unbalanced!" Ray told his starter.

"Prrrrrriiiinp" the penguin using his superior speed slashed the Otter's right leg injuring it and causing it to fall to the ground brutality  
'Bammmmm!' "Aasssaa!" the Otter cries as it falls.

"Alright I'll use a heavy ball on this one, Snag on!!" Ray throws a black colored ball with blue spots on it that snags the otter sharply.

"No fair, I should have at least won once! That's how rivalry works idiot!" SEC cries robotic tears.

"Just blow up already!" Aelita enters the conversation after Hawlucha finished beating up the grunts again.

"How cruel Aelita! I'm the last SEC copy here! What would Sensei think about your behavior!!!" SEC yells at her.

"Nani?!"(what) Aelita was taken off guard.

"Just kidding!" SEC sticks out a virtual green tongue as a stick of dynamite appears From it's head.

"To this isn't the last you've seen of SEC! Kattttttsuuuuu!" 'Booooommmm!'  
The robot blows up it's final copy let the duo reach the elevator.

"Goddamn that thing was annoying"   
Ray spat out.

"........." Aelita stood in slient thinking about how her Sensei could be involved with such people.

"Aelita save the day dreaming for when we save Keta, come on" Ray takes her left arm and drags her onto the elevator.

"Got it, I'm cool now" Aelita shook her head and adjusted as both were elevated to the 46th floor.

46th floor  
They were close to the summit of the mountain now, here the area was classy with decorations everywhere and statue of a familiar woman.

'dro dro dro dro' as the two took a single step, a wide screen TV came floating towards them on a spike covered with blue energy.

The flat screen gets a blue feminine face on it and says "Welcome! I am SEC 2.0, an upgraded version, call me CLARA desu!!" CLARA the new robot says happily.

"Another one!" Aelita speaks up.

The robot moves towards her in particular and scans her body with a blue laser.  
"Recognition: Aelita, objective capture!" CLARA then creates metal arms by her side and grabs the purple haired girl.

"Hey stop that!" Aelita screams as she's unable to get away from the robotic arms.

"Let her go!" Ray tries to grab ahold of CLARA but she Dodges and floats away with Aelita screaming "kyahhhhhhhh!".

As Soon the robot fled with the girl numerous speakers sounded out.  
"Greetings Keta and another unwanted guest! This is the ever so beautiful Medalis admin of team Xen! I have your precious student Aelita if you want her back meet me in my quarters by finding the four keys scattered around! Good luck and don't keep me waiting! I can't wait to destroy you both"  
The announcement ended and Ray recognized that voice as the woman he saw in Gearan labs.

'bammm!!!! The door was opened by an immense force which turned out to be...

"Keta?!!" The dark skinned boy asked in surprise.

"Ray! I knew you'd be here quickly, we need the last key I already have 3, I can't let Aelita suffer for what I did" the pale looking martial artist said.

"Alright then let me quickly check the room to the left!" Ray agrees and runs to the left most door.

Left room  
Here another heavily decorated room filled with pipes containing sleeping Pokemon.

"Is this where they get the Pokemon supply to turn them in to shadow Pokemon?" The young teen wondered.

"Uwaaaahhh!" Ray hears another familiar voice and heads towards it.

The voice turns out to be from a grunt Ray had met in the goldenwood forest.  
It was Eli the dark haired nincompoop who had currently got himself stick in a tube.  
"Uwwwwwa" he hit the glass helplessly in a comical fashion.

Another female grunt who's name Ray couldn't remember was shouting.  
"How'd you even get in there?!" She said as her orange twintails stood up.

"Ahhh, your that kid from the forest Ray!" She said surprised.

"And you two were the elite grunts Eli and Shannon!" Ray also points at her.

"It's Sharon! Whatever take this key and leave I have no intention of helping that bitch Medalis, her personality is shit!" Sharon yells her heart out and gives the boy a yellow key.

"Thanks I guess" Ray then proceeded to leave the two alone until...

"You aren't going anywhere punk! Zigzagoon sick am!" Another grunt came from the shadow and attacked Ray with a raccoon like monster.

"Alright pi...." before Ray could send out his trusted starter another one of his Pokemon forced it's was out of it's ball. 'phuuuuuuu' .  
The blue light clears revealing the evolved dog lycanroc.

"Lyyyyyycaaaaaa!" Rocky cried as she charged the raccoon.

"Hey Rocky! At least listen to me! Is rock tomb!" Ray tried to command the dog but.....

"Rawwwwwww!" She didn't listen and continued to lash out with her claws.

"Dodge and use giga impact!" The grunt ordered his raccoon.

"Ziggggzaaaa!" The brown raccoon turns white and tackles Rocky with severe power however...

"Ly........caaaaroooooii!" Taking the full force of giga impact Rocky's fist glows red as she gives an upper cut to the raccoon.

"Ziii.............!" The force behind that blow knocked out zigzagoon instantly.

"No way?!! Counter?" The grunts realized that the dog had used a new move.

"Another move? Rocky if only you listened to me!" Ray cried tears seeing such a powerful Pokemon not listen to him.

"I'll get you next time!!" The grunt runs away again.

"Rrrrrrrooooooo!" Lycanroc heads back to Keta's position and Ray follows suit yelling at her.

Keta patiently waits by the locked door with 3 keys already placed in their holes.

Keta hears noices and assumes it's Ray until "you got the key....?" Keta looked confused when he saw instead lycan9 charging the door.

"Lyccccarocccc!" 'bammmmmm!' The deranged dog punches the locked door with tremendous force breaking it down.

"Ray control your partner!" Keta yells at the black boy.

"Sorry but hey the door's open" Ray raises his hands in defense.

Medalis's liar  
Even more creepier statues and paintings of Medalis can be seen in this red room, really adding more to her sociopathic personality.

Medalis sits comfortably on her red throne seeing Keta and Ray walk in gives her a evil grin, her hair is tied into 2 pointy ponytails, her uniform is gray and red different from the grunts, she wears red gloves as well.

Aelita runs away from her area and joins back with Ray and Keta.  
"Sensei, Ray!" She shouts happily.

"Well Keta are you finally ready to owe up to our deal" Medalis says still smiling.

"What deal?" Aelita asked.

"The deal to this whole Village! It's under Team Xen's control thanks to your Sensei!" Medalis shouts sadistically.

"It's a lie!!!" The purple haired girl protested.

"Aelita!.... It's true but now I'm going to drive you all out!" Keta admitted.

"Traitor! I'll just have to destroy all of you, awaken my strongest creation!" Medalis shouts in anger.

Behind her a giant tube opens up and from within it a monster steps forward.  
'tap tap tap' every step it makes leaves a dent in the iron floor.

"That's?!!!" Ray's eyes widened in fear.

"That's right Mewtwo or should I say shadow Mewtwo my ultimate shadow Pokemon!" 

"I'll just snag it!" Ray yells as he gets out a great blue ball.

"Not so fast E.M.P!" Medalis says and a huge red energy field surrounded the entire room.

'blizzzzzttt!' "gahhh!" Ray's right hand shocks him as smoke comes outs his snag machine is busted.

"Gyahahahhaha You won't be getting in my way boy!" Medalis laughs like a Maniac

"Mmrawwwwwwww!" The creature cries out, it's entire body is black as it emits purple energy on it's right shoulder a red and blue crystal spike can be seen, it's black tail was restlessly flailing around.

"Shadow Mewtwo take. Care of Keta and that girl, the boy is mine!" Medalis brings out two pokeballs.

"Ereereeewwwwww!" The shadow cat charged at Aelita however.

"Lucario!!!!" Is fast enough to send out his bipedal dog to block the attack.

"Caaaa!" Lucario growls at the shadow Pokemon.

"You sure care about that girl don't you?" Medalis asked curiously.

"Of course she's my daughter after all!" Keta confesses.

"That explains a lot!!!" Ray yells in surprise.

"Come on, Mewtwo I'll be your opponent!" Keta yells.

"Dad" Aelita cries out.

"Splendid then I'll deal with this kid, beware I know what you did to Zetta so I'm ready for you! Houndoom!"Medalis send out her hell hound.

"Well get ready to be surprised! Pip!!!" Ray sends out his penguin!.

The battles start and first off Prinplup vs houndoom starts with a blast.

'shhhhhhhhzzzz' Bubbles clash with flames as the two Pokemon butt heads.

"Night slash!" Medalis orders.

"Counter with metal claw!" Ray makes a chop motion with his hands.

"Prrrriii!!", "Hoooouuu!" The Pokemon clash again this time silver flipper vs black claws 'claaaaaaakk!'.

"Llluuu" Prinplup sprays some bubbles oh his flippers making them stronger!   
"Doooo!" The dog is sent back by the metal water slash.

"What the hell? It combined it's moves?!" Medalis hissed she didn't know his Pokemon reached such a level.

"He recently Evolved, his skills are also evolving! I won't fall behind, Pip combo move bubbly Slash" Ray yells.

"Prinppoo!" The teenage penguin once again covers his flippers in bubbles and slash his enemy like his wielding a sword.

The hell hound once again takes damage.

"I won't be defeated like that boy! Houndoom full power fire blast show him our beauty" Medalis orders again.

"Hounnnnnddd" the dog covered in bones shot out a huge star shaped flame attack out at the penguin.

(Tsk, what move should I use!, None of his water attacks are strong enough to put out the flames and metal claw is...) Ray was thinking in super speed as he looked Prinplup on the eyes.

"........" Both beings looked each other in the eyes, Ray could see the trust his partner had in him.

Before the blast hit the penguin Ray took a deep breath and shouted "metal claw: single Slash" Ray commanded not taking his eyes of Prinplup.

'slaaaaasssssshhhhhhhh!' in a split second the fire blast was cut through  
"Ommmmmm!" The hell hound falls to it's feet realizing it was cut critically through it's shoulder.

"What the fuck?! I lost?! I'm too beautiful to lose!" Medalis shouts in rage.

Ray sees Prinplup in the stance of a swordsman, he wonders if he's getting stronger or Medalis was weak as fuck.

On the other side Keta seems to be in trouble.

"Lucario, Aura sphere!" Let yells.

"Luuu caaaarrr!" The purple bipedal dog shots a orb of fighting energy at the shadow Mewtwo but it Dodges.

"Mewwwwww!" The shadow beast shots out a purple flames attack that draws energy from the red crystal in it's shoulder.

'Booooom!' the blast sends Keta and Lucario flying.  
"Rwarrrrrrrrr!" The legendary doesn't let up and uses a blade of ice generated from the blue crystal to slash Lucario damaging it heavily.

"Dadddd watch out!" Aelita worries thinking how she can help her father.

(It has elemental attacks, guess I'll use my last resort now!) "Gale fist!" Keta yells again.

"Rioooooo!" Lucario fires a powerful wind fist at Mewtwo doing slight damage.

"Grrrrrrraa r!" Suddenly the Mewtwo begams to form a giant ball of psychic energy.

"Shadow Mewtwo aim for Aelita! Destroy everything precious to that bastard!!!" Medalis enters back to the battle after her defeat.

"Aelita!!!" Ray runs towards her as Keta and Lucario run and jump the Mewtwo.

'grab' 'grab' both martial artist grab hold of the floating black cat still pouring out white energy.

"Ray! Take her away from here, there's a generator in the heart of the mountain north of here destroy it and Team Xen will leave" Keta yells.

"No Daddddd!!!!!" Aelita cries out as Ray grabs her hand.  
Ray's reminded of his own mother and decided he'll do Keta's request.

"Aelita.... I love you, raising you were the best parts of my life, live!!!" Keta's voice echoes through the whole mountain as the room tunrs white.

Ray quickly runs to the north door which led to the heart of the mountain.  
'booooooooooiiiommmmmm!' the whole mountain shakes as the white blast eradicates Keta and Lucario.

"Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh" Aelita cries her heart out as Ray holds her tighter and continues to run.

Heart of the mountain  
Ray pants in exhaustion, holding on to the crying Aelita's hand he looks at the room numerous black pipes connected to a giant black machine looking beast submerged in lava which it was pumping through the whole mountain.

CLARA the robot was seen pointing at the beast, "Destroy the beast and team Xen will retreat".

"Let guess, you're helping me because Medalis is a bitch"Ray says tired.

"Exactly" CLARA says happily (even the robot hates Medalis).

"I won't let you! CLARA! It was mistake to buy you!" Medalis comes running towards Ray and Aelita with Mewtwo behind her.

Ray wants to fight but Aelita gets in front of him  
"Ray destroy that thing, I'll defeat this bitch" Aelita said bringing out her own pokeball.

"Oh daddy's girl wants revenge? I just wish you could have seen his body fry" Medalis mocks the young girl.

"Shut upp!!!!!" Aelita charges in anger.

Ray wants to help her but he has his hands full, he then runs and touches the side of the black robotic beast and suddenly his transported somewhere

Rift paradise  
Ray once again finds himself in another rift dimension however the environment isn't as disgusting as the others this once is full of blue flowers green trees and grass.

Momma......where are you?

Ray hears a child's voice and walks towards it.

On the straight pathway Ray's cybernav says  
"Rift data downloaded  
Code: Statia  
Stolen from it's mother it rages with the power of water and fire  
Ability: water absorb, water attacks are ineffective."  
His rift Dex is then updated.

Ray reaches a huge waterfall with the black metallic beast staring at him in a pitiful way it's face was like that of a cat leaking out both water and lava from it's mouth.

Can you help me find my mother?

Ray makes a shocking discovery the voice belonged to this monster.

(I'm supposed to kill this?.....) Ray was once again reminded of his own mother and bit his lip.

"Yes I'll take you to her" Ray lied through his teeth and smiled, this made him sick to his stomach.

His fake smile quickly faded as he brought out lycanroc who looked at him in disobedience.

"Please......... Rocky rock tomb" Ray turned his face away, his hair covering his eyes.

Feeling her master's pain lycanroc lifted her paws and 3 giant boulders we're formed from her energy.

"Lycannnnnnnnnn!" The dog sends the huge rocks at the beast destroying all the black pipes connected to it   
"Baaaaaam! Booooom', 'clannnkkk clangggg!' the sound of breaking metal could be heard as the whole environment was crumbling.

Ray expected screams but instead he heard

Thank you...... 

Ray grabbed his chest,(no matter what way you slice it, I killed it, Melia.... It's heavy) he's mind wondered as he was taken away from the dimension by a white flash of light

To be continued, next time the final chapter of Arc 2


End file.
